Touch of Flame

Darcy was again taking a walk along the beach late at night when she thought she saw Russel still there. She walked over and wondered what he was still doing here when she found out he wasn’t resting.

He looked… dead.

She hurried over, touching his cold skin, searching after his pulse. She could feel nothing or maybe it was just her panic. She wasn’t sure why she was suddenly shaking, tears burned her eyes and she shook his body.

“Russell! Russell!”

How long had he been laying here? He wasn’t breathing and she searched for his pulse again. No! No!

“Help!” She cried.

She wasn’t sure why she was panicking like this when she didn’t even know the man. She was terrified. “Help!” She rose quickly to run and find some help when she spotted two dragons flying across the ocean.

Again?

She pulled her pistol, knowing it wouldn’t help but the sound would at least alert the others. She aimed and fired, not sure if she hit the target since they melted into the dark night sky.

Now, she should just run.

Heart pounding, she turned on her heels, her eyes searching for the closest hiding place. The beach was not the best place to seek refuge and she cursed. She was grilled meat today but to her surprise when she thought they should have already caught up to her and they didn’t she had to look back and she found two men standing at the beach.

Darcy stopped and then slowly walked back, feeling like she had to. Who were these two men?

“Silver moon!” One of them called.

They knew her code name? She approached them slowly. “Phantom has requested to see you.”

So even he called himself Phantom now? And who were they? More half-dragons? She didn’t know he worked with other dragons.

“I can’t come now. I need to help him.” She said.

They turned to look at Russell. “He is dying?”

“He is not dead yet?”

“No.”

“Then help me get him to the ship. I need to help him.” She begged.

The two men looked at each other and then shifted. One of them grabbed Russell and the other snatched her away and flew with her across the ocean. After a while she became dizzy and had to close her eyes and then finally the flight ended and the dragon put her down.

Darcy recognized the dark mansion. It was where she met the phantom several times before but it had been too long since she saw him last. The two males led her inside while one of them carried Russell.

“Is he your father?” One of the males asked as he put him on a table in some strange dark blue room.

Another man appeared clad in all white came into the room and the two men stepped aside to let him examine Russell.

“No.” She said.

“Uncle?”

“I know. He looks like me.” She said.

“He smells like you. Same blood. You are family. You don’t know him?”

Fa-family?

“What do you mean family?”

“You share the same blood,” the man replied.

“Are you saying he could be family. Like my… father?”

“Yes,” he replied curtly.

Darcy’s head began to spin and she stepped back to lean against the wall for support. Could he be her father? Could he really be her father? Then he could not die. She could NOT let him die when she just found him.

But then she remembered that he had introduced himself as the king. Surely she could not be his daughter or he would have looked for her.

She paused remembering how his sad eyes when she first saw him. Oh, God! Could it be? Then why did he not tell her? She was confused.

“Will he be alright?” She asked the man in white.

“Something strange is happening to him,” he said. “I need more time to examine him.”

Darcy paced back and forth as the man continued to examine Russell. Her feet began to hurt and the other two men offered her a chair and something to drink but that didn’t help her calm down. She needed to know that Russell would be alright. She even forgot that she was here to see the Phantom.

“He is breathing now, but his heart is weak and he has an ongoing fever. We shall wait and see if he recovers.” The man in white explained at last.

They took him to a room and Darcy stayed near his bed at all times, praying he would wake up while patting his head with a wet cloth to soothe his fever. Tears streamed down her face, dreading that she would never know him.

“Corinna…” he suddenly called and she responded to the name as if it was her own. He turned his head with eyes still shut and his face taut with pain.

“Russell,” she shook him but he only repeated the name.

“Corinna.” Something in her moved responded. The name felt so familiar. And then he called another familiar name. “Ravina.”

Ravina?

Russell kept being disturbed, mumbling things she couldn’t understand before he fell quiet. And then he started again, sounding more desperate than before.

“Who is Corinna?” She asked him, hoping he could hear her this time.

He didn’t respond. He just repeated those two names. Corinna and Ravina and each time something in her stirred.

At last, she was so confused and tired, her eyes almost closing when her stomach growled in hunger. She left the room to find someone she could ask for food.

The place was dark and she followed the only light she could find. It led her to a hall with tall windows from where the moon shone through. She walked down the hall and at the end, she was met by darkness again.

She waited for a little while so that her eyes would adapt to the darkness and used her hands to make sure she wasn’t walking into something.

“Darcy,” a familiar voice came from the dark and she halted.

The Phantom.

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Bonus chapter dedicated to DespinaNY. Thank you for all the golden tickets <3