Ember of Hope

It was a dark place full of mist and shadows as far as Sarah could see. She remembered though… remembered what had happened. The unreal land of dragons and magic – and in that land one beautiful, beautiful golden dragon. She knew in her heart what he was to her… knew it and still didn’t do anything about it because her head hadn’t caught up with her heart. And now she was here – in a land so dark and lonely it might as well be hell.

She remembered the kidnapping, the escape, and the tumble through the air that had landed her here. Maybe she was dead and this really was hell or maybe she was in another world, she didn’t know. Fear gripped her heart as she turned in a circle and found nothing but slithering shadows. And it was cold – so cold here, she shivered uncontrollably.

If it was hell, she was relieved that Raegan wasn’t here, but she sure missed her friend in this vast emptiness. And then suddenly there was pain… excruciating, bone rending pain. It was like she was being shredded apart, being wrenched out of her body, being burned inside out. She didn’t know how long it had been but then voices started sounding around her. Unclear, garbled voices in her head that she could not decipher due to the static in her ears… and someone screaming, and screaming, and screaming.

She realized that it was she who was screaming… in endless pain and agony. It certainly was hell and she didn’t know what she had done to deserve this fate.

And then there was nothing. She was nothing.

………………………………………….

Seconds passed then minutes. Every tick of the clock was agony and eternity for Damien. And then Sarah started screaming and thrashing… her fragile body straining against the bonds. Her eyes were still closed but tears flowed down from the corners of her closed lids. Such agony contorted her face that he couldn’t stop the shudders that raked his own body.

He lurched forward; Valiance and Raegan flanking him. He put his head on her belly and let the tears he’d been holding in flow. He felt Raegan and Valiance take Sarah’s hands in each of theirs and talking to her. Raegan was crying while begging to God to spare her friend. But he couldn’t hear her words against the white noise his brain had become.

He willed her to come back to him… just come back to him. He had never felt such terror in his long miserable life… not when his mother had died leaving him and his father devastated, not when his father followed his mate in the afterlife and not when the curse had bound him and his brethren for a sin they hadn’t committed.

Her cries stopped and her body stilled. His head snapped up. Raegan’s face had gone pale as death and Valiance was now holding her in a strong embrace to support her. The healer came forward and put each of his glowing hands on Sarah’s forehead and heart.

“She is pulling through. Her conscious mind is trying to break the surface. Be her anchor. Talk to her. Help her come back”.

And it was Raegan who started talking first because he couldn’t. And perhaps she knew that words had failed him or perhaps she hadn’t even seen him struggling. But she started talking to Sarah and the heeler continued pouring his healing light in her.

And then the most beautiful thing happened, as if finally his suffering had ended. Sarah took a ragged breath and then another and another like she’d been starved of air for a long time. And then slowly; her eyes opened. Someone gasped… maybe Raegan or maybe he himself had, and then Raegan launched herself at her friend.

Sarah opened her mouth to say something but only a wheeze came out. The healer rushed towards his potion’s tray and grabbed a small cup with a greenish liquid inside.

“She needs to drink this now” he said politely and Raegan backed up, helping Sarah sit up. Sarah took the cup from the healer’s hand and threw back its contents like a shot – and immediately started retching. Raegan handed her a glass of water and it was then that her eyes found Damien. All this time he’d been standing there; stunned out of movement. The fear of almost losing her still fresh in his wildly beating heart. She smiled and it was sunshine after a dark and deadly storm.

He didn’t even notice when everybody else filed out.

“How are you feeling?” he rasped out. What else could he say? That he loved her and he was terrified that he would lose her? Even if that was precisely what he wanted to say… it was the only thing he was unable to confess. Words choked down in his throat as if a hand had squeezed them to death.

“I’ve been better” she replied in a weak voice. All this time her eyes hadn’t left his and something had changed in them – something about the way she was looking at him made his heart thunder – but not with fear this time.

“When I fell, I woke up in a strange place” she started, now looking at the glass in her hands, “it was dark – very dark and cold there. I thought I was dead and that was my hell – alone in the dark”. Her voice trembled. “I remembered everything and I remembered how I fell, so naturally I thought I was dead. And in that place – in that hell, I had no regret but one…” she looked up in his eyes then, “you”, she whispered and the sudden rush of hope nearly drove him to his trembling knees.

“What are you saying?” his own voice was barely above a trembling whisper – full of fear and hope.

“I’m saying that I regretted letting me fears win and stop me from telling you how I feel. I regretted not liberating you of your curse or atleast trying… if you had let me, that is. I thought I had squandered my chance and that I won’t ever see you again. And I thought that was the reason of my being in hell” she let out a long breath and looked at his frozen figure again. “So I think what I’m saying is that now I know what I desire. And I’m asking you if you want the same?”

He closed his eyes against the onslaught of emotion and she spoke again.

“Of course you can’t answer that. Raegan told me enough about the curse and how she broke Val’s. So, Damien Priamos, can you please pass me a knife?” she grinned.

……………………………………….