CHAPTER 8

Before the curse; he was one of the most sought after young dragons in Evreux along with Dimi. It was common in dragon kind to have affairs before finding their mates because that could take decades or centuries even. And nobody was willing to be a saint for so many a years. Nobody knew when they would find their mates – if at all. So it was nothing frowned upon amongst their species.

But Valiance never found the urge in him. He didn’t find any one that he liked enough to be unfaithful to his future mate. He wanted to wait for her who was made solely for him – and whom he was made for. And then the curse fell upon them. On the other hand, Dimi was the whore of Evreux. And he was shamelessly proud of himself and his “talents” when it came to ladies. He claimed they all loved his offerings.

Valiance was a prisoner of the unknown girl’s angelic face and the sweet jasmine scent reaching him. And he was unaware of anything the young healer was telling them about the girl’s condition. He didn’t even know if anybody else was there except that girl. He was soon shaken out of it by Dimi’s brutal thump on his head. He glared at his best friend. Dimi had amusement dancing in his eyes. “See something you like brother?” he teased. The healer glared daggers at Dimi, spooking him into silence with her cat like eyes and turned to Valiance. “She should be getting up by tomorrow morning. You can come to visit in the evening. I think it wise to prepare her beforehand for what to expect. She is from the human world. They do not believe us to be real. And she is going to be here a while so we can’t very well hide the truth from her”.

Valiance only nodded at her and turned to leave. Something was pulling him back in that room. His heart raced as he turned tail and almost ran out. Dimi followed closely behind – either sensing his distress or not willing to be left behind in that place.

“Slow down man. What’s gotten into you?” Dimi huffed, approaching him.

“Nothing. Go ahead and tell father what the healer said. I’ll be flying for a while”.

“Sure, whatever you say Drama Queen”. Dimi rolled his eyes at his best friend and took off towards the fortress. He knew that for some reason his brother needed to be alone.

…………………………

Raegan slowly opened her eyes and immediately felt her head swim. Groaning she shielded her eyes from thankfully a very dim light or surely her eyes were gonna bleed out of her face.

When she was finally able to open her eyes fully without the fear of going blind she took in her surroundings; a vast room with ridiculously high ceilings and pale green walls. Next to her bed were two chairs and a side table. It looked like a hospital room the size of a ball room. She cursed while taking it all in – alone in an unknown place with no recollection of how she ended up here – plus she was heavily bandaged.

“What the hell?” she frowned and tried to sit up – curses flew like galloping wild horses from her mouth when her whole body felt like it had been trampled by a hoard of rhinos. She gave up sitting and settled on hollering “Hello” with an awful croak.

Not even a minute later a girl dressed in a plain white skirt walked in – with a kind smile on her lips that made Raegan smile in turn. “How are you feeling?” she asked softly.

“Like I was just run over by a freight train”, Raegan replied.

She gave a light chuckle “sadly you will be feeling sore for a couple days more. It’s a miracle really that you pulled through”.

“Pulled through what? What happened? And where am I? This doesn’t look like a hospital”.

She sat in one of the chairs next to Raegan’s cot and with a serious but not an unkind expression; asked “can you tell me your name?’

“Uh yeah sure, I’m Raegan – Raegan Turner”.

“Well Raegan you had a very bad accident while I guess you were hiking. You fell. You had a very nasty fall and many bones in your body were broken plus you had a concussion. When you were brought here you were barely alive. As I said before – it’s a miracle you pulled through – do you remember now?”

Yes. Yes, she did remember now… the fall… the agony… the feeling of life slowly leaving her body… and then finally; ‘the acceptance of death’ – and just before darkness claimed her; the hope to meet with her family once again. She remembered it all. She shot up in bed seething in anger, “That bitch actually pushed me off a cliff”, and fell back down groaning in pain. “So I’m not dying anymore” it was more a whispered statement than a question to which the girl replied anyway, “no, you’re not”. She had that beautiful calming smile set on her face. The only thing a bit odd about her was her cat like yellow eyes. Maybe lens, but something in Raegan told her they were natural.

“Who are you? And where am I?” she asked again.

“I am nirvana. I’m a healer of Evreux. Raegan! What I’m about to tell you, I want you to keep an open mind about it. Can you do that?”

Raegan nodded, now a bit weary of her. But guess her expressions belied the nod of her head making nirvana smile even wider.

“Trust me when I say that I have no reason to lie to you. So what I’m about to tell you might not be readily acceptable but in time you’ll see”.

“Okay” Raegan blew out a heavy breath “I promise I won’t freak out on you – please continue”.

But she was freaking out internally – which the pretty girl sitting in front of her didn’t need to know. So se schooled her features as best she could and held her breath for what was to come.