He reached down to touch the dog in the darkness. The space next to him was empty, but he still felt a warm body covered in fur. It was... hisownbody... what kind of nightmare was this?
“He is awake.” Ian rushed to the side of the bed.
Aden could hear the movement, even if he could not see it. He felt hands on his shoulders.
“Aden, can you hear me?” Ian shouted in his face.
“Of course I can hear you, idiot.” Aden’s mouth felt dry, his tongue struggling to form the words. “Stop shouting.”
Ian sighed in relief, and Aden grit his teeth against the pitchy breath. A catapult shattering through a stone wall could sound more gentle.
“Stop making so much noise.” Aden swiped his arm into the darkness, pushing Ian away.
“Ooh!” Ian jumped backward, and Aden felt two small hands encircling his wrists. “Careful with the claws,” Ian said.
Claws?
Aden shook his hand free and held it in front of his face, trying to focus through the hazy darkness. He could make out some clouds of light gray in the room, but they seemed to be moving through gloomy shadows. He could not see his own hand. Panic once again seized at his chest, but he refused to let it show.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice coming out calm and disconnected.
“I was attacked by a Majis at the ball,” Ian started. “You jumped in front of me—”
“I remember that part.” Aden cut him off as the events of the ball came back to him. “What happened afterward? What is happening now?”
Aden could literally hear Ian turn his head toward the other person in the room. His mother’s comforting hand ran up the center of his forehead. She was brushing her fingers from the top of his nose upward. It was an odd choice of motion, but it helped to calm him.
“I can understand that it is quite a bit to take in all at once,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
Aden shook his head ever so slightly so as not to discourage the gentle movement of her hand on his forehead. So, the attack of the Majis had blinded him. Perhaps it was not permanent, since he could make out vague shadows. “Tired,” he responded. “Heavy.”
“Try to get some more sleep then.” Queen Cara removed her hand and stepped away from his bed, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “He’s taking it surprisingly well.”
“I was expecting a bit more of an outburst,” Ian replied to her in the same hushed tone.
“I may be blinded,” Aden cut in, “but I can still hear you just fine.”
The room around him froze.
A cold fear snaked up through Aden’s core and slowly squeezed his lungs.
His mother moved back to his side and reached out to his face, touching his cheek with tentative fingertips. “You... cannot see?”
Aden shook his head. “No. Well, how dark is it in here?”
His mother’s hand resumed its gentle upward motion. Her silence answered his question.
“So, you did not see your... hand... when you tried to look at it just now?” Ian asked.
Aden shook his head again. Raising his hand, he strained his eyes through the darkness to make it out. His fingers were stiff, and his wrist could painlessly bend in the wrong direction. “What did that Majis do to me?” This time, he could not keep the growing fear from his voice.
“He cursed you...” his mother started to say, her voice calm and comforting. But it caught in her throat and she paused. She was not an overly emotional woman, and that small sound frightened Aden more than anything else had in these last strange moments of wakefulness.
“Let me tell him, Mum.” Ian took over, his voice weighted with the responsibility of the eldest sibling and the crown prince of Iseldis.
“You did not cause this,” Queen Cara said to Ian.
“The attack was directed at me,” Ian responded, his voice miserable. “It is my fault. I should be the one in the body of a beast.”
