The Fire Within (Book 1 of Dragonfire series)

Chapter 22

I jump out of bed and don't even bother to change out of the sweatpants and t-shirt I went to bed in. I run down to the infirmary and peek inside. Cullen is sleeping soundly. I quickly retreat from the room, and see Alfio and the nurse walking towards me with a food tray. The cup with the potion is included with his breakfast.

"You are both welcome to stand out here, but I don't recommend you come in. Seeing you, especially Alena, could trigger him to freak out and possibly prevent the potion from working." We nodded in agreement as she walked in and woke Cullen.

"What is this shit?" He asked rudely.

"It's supposed to speed up the healing process for your injuries." She was obviously referring to when I fought him in the training room. I heard him drink the liquid and place the cup on the tray, signaling he drank it all. Suddenly, we heard glass fall to the floor and shatter. We ran in and saw Cullen laying unconscious on the bed, his breakfast was spilled all over the floor. I ran up to him, screaming his name. I flashed a crazed glare at the nurse.

"What the hell is happening?" She rushed to check his vitals and such before turning to me slowly.

"He appears to have gone into a coma.." My eyes widened in anger.

"A coma? Why? Is this supposed to happen?" She winced as I yelled at her.

"We didn't expect this to happen, no." I felt heat radiating off my body as I grew increasingly angrier by the second. As I walked past Alfio, he reached for my hand, but quickly released it.

"Shit, you just burned me. You need to calm down before you do something stupid." By the time he said that, however, I was already halfway down the hall. Once again, I charged into Professor Aneirin's office.

"It didn't work! Instead, it put him in a coma!" Tears were flowing down my cheeks like a river.

"Hmm that's strange. Give it some time." He said this as if he had much more important matters to attend to, only pissing me off more.

"I'm sick of just waiting for something to happen! It's not going to work, so we need something else." He scratched his head uncomfortably.

"Give it some time Alena. Besides, I'm not sure what else we could try." I couldn't handle it. I just walked out and retreated to the library. There has to be something, something to take the pain away. I remember reading it in one of these books... I searched for a book about faeries and their magic. I came to a page about feelings and emotions.

Because Faeries have heightened senses, this also means they feel emotion much more powerful than other creatures do. Therefore, there is a way to turn off their emotions. However, this is only done in extreme cases. Turning emotions off may be easy, but turning them back on is much harder. There are several cases in which a faerie has turned off their emotion, and were never able to turn them back on.

I became frustrated, wondering why it didn't explain how to turn the emotions off. I decided to figure it out on my own. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I forced myself to go to the deepest, darkest part of me.

I open my eyes and am surrounded by darkness, except for a single flame. It burns a deep red, sitting there calmly. One blow is all it would take.

I wipe a tear that runs down my face.

I can't keep doing it. Not without Cullen. I love him so much, it consumes me. Without him, I am nothing. I can't keep walking around with the feeling that my heart was ripped out of my chest. I love you Cullen, so much that I have to do this if I want to live.

I inhale sharply and blow it out as if it were poison. The flame disappears, leaving me alone in the blackness of my soul. I shiver as it grows instantly cold. I see a spark before me, which quickly turns into another flame. However, this flame is not the same one. It changed. An icy blue flame dances in front of me, releasing waves of frozen air. A chill runs down my spine as I realize what I have done.

The heat of the flame was my emotion. The Dragonfire has turned to ice. Emotionless and deadly.

I want to reverse it, but it's too late. A voice, calling out my name, awakens me from my trance. I recognize it as Alfio's. I look out the windows above me, and notice it's now dark outside, causing me to wonder how long I was meditating.

"Alena, you have to come with me." I give a fake chuckle as I turn to face him.

"I don't have to do anything," I return coldly.

"It's Cullen...he's awake."

Hello readers :) I'm going on vacation in 2 weeks and I don't know if I will have service so I'd like to finish this book by then! Hope you are all enjoying it so far! xoxo