Candescent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

assumed contained fluids for hydration and a combination of vitamins and minerals to keep my hair and skin healthy. The curtains in my room were a light snowy color, keeping out only a little bit of light, but the warmth felt nice. The room was an obvious basic white color, that of a hospital. The only thing that stood out in my room was the vase at my bedside. A heavy blue and white artistic vase held a bundle of multicolored flowers. I waited to feel my blood warm and the feeling came into my legs, so I stood up, detached the machines, and left my room. Surprisingly, no one had noticed me, though doctors buzzed around creatures with trauma, rushing from room to room. It was easy to leave without being noticed since Caspian wasn’t around or at least not in my sight.
    I took a shortcut through the City, eager to get home. Even though I was at the palace in no time at all, I had taken more time to look at it, wondering what my fate would be when Pete confronted me. I walked to the door noticing how unkempt the gardens were, how the weeds were taking over and killing several climbing roses that wrapped around the columns in front of the palace.
    I stepped into disturbing silence. There was no activity, nothing at all to report. A coat of dust would have convinced me that nothing had changed since I left, but everything was clean and in its place. Pete must have heard me stepping onto the marble floor with all of the silence, but it wasn’t he who appeared at the top of the staircase, it was Fitzray. He was not a boy, not my boy. He would always be the son of Luna Silver. He was a man now, the same age as I had seen him last when Pete threw him over the Bridge of Secrecy. His green eyes widened and he seemed lost for words.
      “Chenille?” I barely heard him, but I nodded in response.
    “Who’s there Fitz?” Pete called.
    Fitzray gave him no response, simply stared at me. Pete appeared at the top of the stairs, stood beside his brother starting to shake his head. He looked the same. He hadn’t changed since I left.
    “Chenille. Chenille.”
    He started to walk down the stairs slowly, smiling hesitant and then more boldly by the time he reached me. He embraced me, calmly held fast to my arms and rested his chin on my head. His grip only became softer and he stepped back to look at me, proceeding to guide me up the stairs to our room. Fitzray watched us cautiously as we disappeared down the hall, the door closing behind us.
    Pete sat down beside me on the bed smiling. He threw his cape off onto the floor and pressed his hands to my shoulders. He edged slightly closer to kiss my forehead and released me. He leaned back into the pillows and shook his head still smiling, now starting to laugh. At first, I thought it was insanity, but then I realized he laughed playfully, something I had never heard before.
    “I thought you were gone for good.” He remarked and started to laugh again. I didn’t find what he said funny at all.
    He continued to laugh to an almost suspicious extent, being there was no need for his strange humor and I got up cautiously. I realized he smelled sweet and started to back away.
    I was sure he had been drinking the juice of a plumeberry, a berry whose juice is abundant with the toxicity of the plume plant. Such juice causes numbness due to excessive release of endorphins and encouraging erratic, non-judgmental behavior. Too much of the juice could make someone pass out for a couple of hours and by then the toxins would have inflicted a lot of damage. An average plumeberry had enough toxicity to cause its victim to want more as well. People and creatures referred to it as the vampress poison flower because it possesses the effects of real vampire poison no vampress has.
    Pete didn’t go completely off the edge, but it was plain to see that he was drunk from the stuff. I started to walk out of the room when he stopped me.
    “Don’t let my behavior fool you. I’m just the same.”
    I barely