The Curse's Breath

Chapter Thirty-One

It was an odd feeling to be in a room full of people that wanted to kill her. She was sitting right there and they had no idea. If they knew, how long would she last? Barely a second, Celni decided. All it would take is for someone to grab a dagger from a hidden side pocket and stab her right in the neck. Anyone could do it with how tightly packed the room was.

A second thought occurred to her. Would my father kill me if he knew the truth?

Everything in her felt sick to think about it. Because if she was honest, she didn't know if she knew the answer to that question.

Celni shifted uncomfortably in her chair, unsure what to do with her limbs. It was hard to act natural. Everyone kept talking about ways to trap "it" and kill "it". On top of how guilty she already felt, it was incredibly demeaning to be called an "it". This was the worst she had ever felt in her entire life.

Ages seemed to pass until the meeting was over and Reinej dismissed everyone. Celni tried to stand up and nearly fell over, but Sylvia caught her with her shoulders and pushed her back upright. "Thank you," Celni murmured. Sylvia gave her a nod.

"Are you okay?" Celni turned to see Dyrnen walking up to her. "You look horrid," he said.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically. "And I'm fine."

He pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Wow. I thought friends didn't lie to each other."

"We're friends?" she questioned.

He ran a hand through his blond hair. "Well, perhaps not after this awkward interaction."

Celni smiled at him. "Friends it is." But her smile disappeared. But would we be if he knew the truth?

Dyrnen frowned. "Something is definitely up. I'm walking you home."

She shook her head. "You really don't—"

"Stop. It is already decided. Come on."

She looked at Sylvia, who shrugged. Celni sighed. "Okay. Let's go."

The three were quiet on the way home. When they got back, Sylvia immediately went back to her bed. Celni and Dyrnen went to sit on the couch in the living room.

He leaned back into the cushion and folded his arms. "So. Tell me what is going on with you."

Celni debated lying to him, giving him excuses. But she was so exhausted. And she hated the sick, guilty feeling in her stomach. So before she knew it, she found herself saying words she never thought she'd say to another human.

"I can turn into a dragon."

His eyes widened.

She continued quickly before Dyrnen could say anything. She laid it all out, the first time the wings showed up on her back and the scales that appeared in the training assessment, how she had trained with her wings and how it eventually had led to her turning into a dragon. Celni talked about her initial plan to spy on the dragons and all she had learned during that period, but how things hadn't gone like she had planned and how hard it turned out to be on both sides of the war. She opened up about how she had started to feel like dragons weren't any worse, or any better, than humans for that matter, and that both sides needed to be saved. She told him about Lunar, and how they had discovered the curse that had been going through the land and how she was born to stop it. She started crying as she said that she had tried, she had tried to stop the war but it went so very wrong. She spoke of the two battles she had been in and how they had fallen to pieces and it was all because of her. Celni's words began to be interrupted by helpless sobs, and eventually she stopped talking, her hands over her mouth and her back shaking as she wept.