Shadow Cursed

Chapter 29: The Clock Struck 12

The ballroom was filled with men and women dancing with each other, another dream. I looked around looking for a familiar face in the crowds. Everyone I passed curtsied and I quickly walked past them. It wasn't until I spotted Damien walking toward me that I paused. 

Damien was standing here in front of me, I thought I would never see him again. "Damien?" He was dressed in a black suit with a bow tie and looked nice, "You clean up well."

He giggled, "Look at yourself."

I looked down at the ball gown length dress that ended near my ankles. Lifting the dress slightly, was a pair of short black heels on my feet. The dress was made of an expensive satin material, with several layers. The color was a black to match his suit, and had a ribbon around my waist with a rose attached to the ribbon. I felt for my head and found a tiara graced upon it, it the the same tiara from the dream. Around my neck was my amulet, and I had a pair of diamond earrings on. In my curiosity, I did a twirl and slipped, he caught me as I almost fell on the floor. I blushed, "Do I look nice?"

"You look like a queen." He offered his hand, "We don't have all night. Can I have this dance?" He fixed his bow tie.

I whispered, "I don't know how to dance though."

He pulled me close enough I felt intoxicated by his presence, "Just follow my lead. Do you trust me Celeste?" His eyes were warm and gentle, I nodded. He planted a quick kiss on my check and started dancing, holding me close. "Just mirror me and you should blend in."

I fell into his rhythm, it was if he was my other half. I let my head rest on his shoulder. Time was frozen and I had all night, "Damien, how old are you?"

He hesitated before answering me, "139 years. Being an angel, I stopped aging. I know I appear as if I still was 17 or 18."

Part of my heart stopped, but my feet kept moving without me. "Damien, please don't leave me. I need you." I knew it was only a dream, but without him I was unsure about what I needed to do. "You are a part of my world now, if you leave I'll collapse."

His hand slipped a loose hair back behind my ear. He whispered in my ear, "The time will come, don't rush it. Timing has to be perfect or everything else will fall apart." He stood in the moment perfect.

He leaned in for a kiss as the clock struck midnight, and the dream slowly became a nightmare around me. Everyone stopped dancing and the music slowed to a silence. Panicing I looked for safety in his eyes, but his eyes were no longer warm and gentle when I looked into them. They had become eyes of a demon, empty and souless. I tired to break the embrace, but his grip tightened refusing to let me go. "Damien," fear filled my eyes, "Let me go." I struggled, but all efforts were useless.

His eyes had no emotion in them, only light less pits of darkness. His lips forcefully met mine, it felt nothing like the Damien I knew and trusted. Against my will, I tasted the poison and was chocking on it. My body was becoming stiff and wouldn't respond when I tried to escape once again.

Whimpering in his arms, "Damien, I trusted you."

He pulled me close, "The only place you'll be going, is with me darling." He laughed in my face, his breath hot. I could feel the poison spreading through my veins, paralyzing me slowly. Damien was not here anymore, replaced by a demon with a hood. I couldn't see the face.

"What do you want with me?" I pleaded.

He only laughed as he continued to have control over the ballroom, "Soon your powers will be mine and you'll be nothing but a memory of a lost hero that couldn't carry out her mother's last wishes." I cought hear the vemon in his voice.

"Never." The poison was winning against my body, I felt numb. "I will never surrender my magik to some demon like you. I will save the Celestial realm, even if I die in the end."

"The clock's ticking my daughter of darkness, soon you'll have no choice but to come join us."

Frustation only built, "What do you even want my gift for."

He silenced me, "Thats for me to know and you to find out when you make up your mind on whose side you will pick."

"I will never pick the darkness!" I spit in anger.

"Oh but you will. I have a vision that when you are at your lowest point you will be on your knees begging to join us and that is when your tragic story will end."

"What did you do to Damien!" Enraged and pissed off, I continued, "You did something to him. He's dying and you are responsible."

"Not dying honey, only being put into a deep sleep until I need to awaken him." The grin on his face was the only thing I could see though the cloak hood. "I have other plans for him when the time comes."

"You are never going to get away with this, not as long as I'm fighting."

"My daughter of darkness, I have been waiting for years for this moment. And now its here, soon you'll be stripped of your powers and held prisoner to watch as I dominte the human world and all the realms. The afterward, you and your father will be sentenced to death the same way your mother was." His hand touched my cheek and he held my chin close to hsi face, "I will see you soon daughter."

This is only a dream. This is only a dream. I repeated it to myself as the poison reached my eyes, closing my heavy eyelids.