To The Ones Who Can't Dream

chapter 85 - Keep Talking About Her

     As soon as they all landed back in Velaris, panic set in. Seren needed to lay down, rest, and try to come to terms with what had just happened. But, she couldn't do that right now. Cassian was still unconscious and he needed to see a healer quickly if he wanted even the slightest chance of his wings being restored.

     So Azriel, Rhys, and Seren hefted his extremely heavy body up and flew him to the healer, Madja. Seren had seen her too many times to count now, with all of her various wounds and health problems. She knew just how talented Madja was, but even with all of that talent, Seren wasn't sure Cassian's wings were salvageable.

     They knocked on her door and when she came to answer it, she immediately ushered them in. Carefully, the three of them set his body down on the table. Since he was on his stomach, Seren folded a towel and placed it under his head. Then, Madja got to work on his wings. She had to carefully pick up every piece of skin and flesh and reattach it to the bones in his wings.

     Seren was just hoping that he didn't wake up right now. He would be in so much pain if he did. But, as if he had heard her thoughts, Cassian stirred. He groaned and tried to move. "Hey, dude don't try to move. Madja is trying to fix your wings," Az told him.

     "Is Nesta alright?" was Cassian's only response.

     Moving to his head, Seren bent down until she was face to face with him and grabbed his hand. His fingers tightly gripped hers, his knuckles turning white. Although it hurt, Seren would never let him go. "Nesta is fine," Seren said, "She is at the House of Wind with Elain and Amren."

     Cassian smiled slightly, "Keep talking about her."

     "It is going to be a huge adjustment for her and she might hold a lot of resentment towards us. She will blame us for putting her in this situation. After all, both Nesta and Elain had a completely different life before this," Seren concluded.

     And for the remaining hours of Madja painstakingly repairing his wings, Seren sat and talked to Cassian. Az and Rhys remained in the room, watching over them as they always did. After a couple of hours, Madja finally sat back, "I've done all that I can do for him now. He is going to be in a world of pain for the next few weeks. He isn't allowed to fly for at least a month and before he tries flying, I want him to come back and visit me to make sure he won't damage his wings."

     "Thank you Madja," Rhys smiled at her.

     Cassian had passed out again so the three of them lifted him up again and flew him back to the House of Wind. They deposited him onto his bed and then closed the door. Seren let out a breath of relief, "Okay, I'm going to go shower and then sleep. I just need to wrap my head around everything that happened."

     Az nodded and headed off to his own room. Rhys and Seren started the walk to the other part of the house where their rooms were located. "Are you alright?" Rhys asked her quietly.

     "I will be, but what about you?" Seren asked back.

     "Yeah, I guess I'll be. How does your back feel?"

     Seren shrugged, "I know the King said that I had a stab wound, but my back feels perfectly fine. Why?"

     Rhys grabbed her arm, "Come on, you need to see what happened."

     Confused, Seren followed Rhys into his room. He took her past his bed and into the bathroom where there was a mirror. He positioned her so her back was facing the mirror and Seren looked over her shoulder to see whatever Rhys wanted her to see. And whatever she was expecting, it wasn't what she saw.

     A glowing star was on her back. "What the fuck!" Seren exclaimed and then whipped her shirt off to get a better look.

     "That's where your stab wound was. The Cauldron must have healed it for you," Rhys told her, also staring at her back in the mirror.

     The star was a faint glow, nothing that she couldn't cover up with clothing. But what she didn't understand was why it was like that. Then a thought occurred to her and she turned so that she could look at her face in the mirror. The star was exactly like her eyes. The same silvery, otherworldly glow. It was disturbing.

     She bled red, just like all of the other fae in Prythian. So why wasn't the wound red instead of like her eyes. Seren shook her head. It was all too much. She just needed to sleep. Sleep would solve all of her problems. Shaking her head, she turned away from the mirror and back to Rhys who was standing at her side, watching her cautiously. "Tonight was horrible," Seren whispered.

     Rhys nodded silently. Suddenly, Seren's knees gave out and she landed on her knees on the bathroom tile. "Seren, what happened?" Rhys called to her with concern in his voice before he dropped to the ground beside her.

     Seren covered her face with her hands as she felt tears stream uncontrollably down her face. Her biggest fear had come true. She had been forced into the Cauldron against her free will and it scared her. She was one of the most powerful fae out there, but when it came to brute strength, she was overpowered by most males. She worked out everyday to become as strong as she possibly could but it was no use. Any of those males in the throne room earlier tonight could easily overpower her if it came to hand-to-hand combat.
Rhys reached out and pulled her against him, "I'm so sorry Seren."