Chapter 9

VALENS

It started when I was nine. I wanted to go to this place and that, visit here and there. Everyone laughed at my enthusiasm for travelling, calling me an explorer but then it was confirmed I had inherited my father’s curse. No one laughed after that.

Of all things to inherit, I just had to inherit a curse.

While I slept, I dreamt of warmth, of a woman with beautiful amber eyes and reddened skin. Since I hit puberty and the curse came alive, I lost the ability to see colours. Even in my dreams, my world was grey, so it was a fascinating dream. The woman was the most fascinating to me but like a wicked prank, every time I reached for her, she slipped through my grasp like smoke.

I woke up with my hands reaching for thin air and then I blinked once, twice, ten times. My eyes flitted across the room as my mouth dropped open. No matter how many times I hit myself, no matter how many times I blinked my eyes and pinched myself, the scene remained unchanged.

The world around me was ali