Poison: A Dragonian Series Novella (The Dragonian Series) (14 page)

That piece of knowledge made the hair on my arms and the back of my neck tingle.

The Black Market.

I looked at my Pappi and he closed his eyes once lovingly in my direction and eased my worries with a soft smile.

My heart still beat hard as it was one of the places I would gladly close down in a second if they gave me the chance of ruling this world. They still used dragon parts, parts that kept them alive, as the most valuable potions couldn’t function without them, like the coward potion.

A potion my mother had once asked Goran to make her so that she could pretend to be dead and reunite with me.

She wrote about that in her journal, something she did on a daily basis after she gave me up. If I hadn’t already relived what pain she went through giving me up that day, her words of what life was without me would’ve done it.

She really wanted me with all of her heart, so much that her and my father’s relationship turned into dust because he couldn’t find the person who was going to betray them, a love I thought could never die.

The Ancients still spoke in the background. I didn’t hear a single word they said and was brought back to reality as a short little fat man with medals sewn onto his black suit came running in with a wooden box.

He came to a halt in front of me and opened the lid.

Inside was a beautiful round bracelet with a small heart charm that dangled from it. There was a dark blue stone in the middle of the heart.

The guy with a big belly and beautiful black suit with golden medals nodded once and I just stared at him and then at the Ancients.

“Princess, you are the only one that can touch it. The spell will start when it comes in contact with your skin,” my Pappi said.

I reached out with slightly trembling hands as if it was a snake that was going to strike at any moment.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and took the bracelet.

I awkwardly tried to clasp it on and by the fifth time, with a couple of annoying sighs coming from the thrones, I finally got the clasp to connect with the link.

“The dark stone will turn into a soft blue when the spell is busy protecting you from whatever pain the Rubicon is going through,” the speaker said.

My Pappi cleared his throat. “You can’t take it off, Elena. If you do, the spell will lose its power and the bracelet would be just that, a bracelet.”

I nodded and took a deep breath.

“I understand.” I stood up and Master Longwei followed my lead.

“I thank all of you for finding something so rare to protect me from danger.” I smiled. It didn’t sound anything like me. The old Elena would never have said anything like this.

“Thank you, your honors and we appreciate this dearly,” Master Longwei added and all of them got up and made their way, without a hint of it’s a pleasure, through another door.

It felt as if I could breathe again, and we turned around and exited the hall.

More questions flowed and all I did was dangle my bracelet in the air and tell them that there was a reason the Ancients were called Ancients.

Pedro, my Pappi’s most trusted apprentice whom I had met that horrible night when everything was stripped from me, waited a couple of yards from the carriage and nodded.

When I opened the carriage an envelope waited on the soft leather sofa.

Master Longwei closed the door and I sat down, opening the wax seal holding the envelope closed.

My dearest Elena. You have no idea how important this bracelet is. It’s the only object that might protect you from this horrible curse that was placed upon you, a curse that will hopefully soon turn into a blessing. Please, I pray, that you will never take it off. We trust and pray with all of our hearts that it is going to work, and will never give up on finding something that will, if the bracelet will not live up to its task.

I beg you not to worry with how we came by it, just trust that the source and the magic behind it, is rare and as old as time itself.

But enough of that. Meet me this Saturday at 17 Millherb road, ask that Moon-Bolt friend of yours, he will find it in no time.

Much love and thought,

Pappi.

I smiled and felt better about the bracelet dangling from my wrist as I put the letter back into the envelope.

It wasn’t the first time my Pappi had snuck off to meet me for some private time with his great, great, great, great, great granddaughter.

The last time we just talked while walking in the park, enjoying an ice cream. Pappi was a sucker for ice cream, both in disguise, and lucky that nobody recognized us, thanks to Lucille.

The ride back to the academy felt longer than the one coming here.

And for the first time in a long time, I was actually looking forward to discovering if this old spell was going to work or not.

When the carriage stopped the bracelet started to sparkle.

I stared at it, and so did Master Longwei. None of us knew what that meant as the Ancients said that the stone would turn lighter if it was protecting me in some way, not that it would sparkle, the way it was sparkling now.

“Does it hurt?” Master Longwei asked in a concerned tone and I shook my head while staring at it as we walked down one of the cobblestone paths past the huge statue of my dad and plenty of oak trees.

“Then I should speak to one of the Ancients and find out what all of this means, Elena.”

“Yeah, that sounds like an idea.”

We reached the main building in record time as Master Longwei’s strides widened and I had to run-walk to keep up. He pulled at one of the doors as if it weighed nothing and the bracelet sparkled even more, not that I thought it was possible.

“This is seriously starting to freak me out,” I said softly.

“Soon, we’ll have our answer soon,” was all he said as we rushed down the hall toward the dragon that parted the hall and the lobby of the Academy.

I was still staring at my bracelet and it was brighter than ever. I could swear that it got brighter and brighter as we moved down the hall toward the lobby.

“What do you think is this…” I slammed into Master Longwei who was standing in the entrance of the lobby and hallway.

“Master Longwei?” I asked and looked at what he was staring at.

“I know why that bracelet is shining, Elena.”

Yeah, I knew too, as he was standing with his lips against Tabitha, kissing her as if there was no tomorrow.

I sighed and walked up the steps, past them, while my heart was stammering inside my chest. Why he still had this effect on me was beyond my knowledge. He’d made it perfectly clear that I was no match against Tabitha a couple of months back.

He was such an idiot and I had no idea what I’d seen in him that time. None of it was real, just one big act.

A hand grabbed me around the arm, tight, and I looked at it.

I slowly raised my head to look at him.

He was still kissing Tabitha, but his ugly paw was around my arm. What was his problem?

He finally broke the kiss, brushing her cheek softly with his thumb. When she saw me, she jumped slightly but her surprised, partially-gaped mouth turned into a pair of thin lips and her nostrils widened slightly.

He turned his head with narrowed peacock-blues staring straight at me.

“A word, now,” he said with his jaw muscles pumping.

He was so arrogant.
Prick.

“You have no right to speak to my father the way you did the other day,” he almost spat the words at me.

I started to laugh and I could see it was seriously annoying him.

“I don’t need a babysitter, Elena! Or a rider for that matter.”

I could see this piece of information was making Tabitha glow inside.

“You think I want to be your rider? To be stuck with this fucked up bond or whatever it is we share? I,” I poked him hard, but he stood his ground. “Didn’t run away like a coward. I faced whatever I had to face, and dealt with my responsibility. You need to decide what you are going to do, because to be honest, I’m sick and tired of this game you play, tired of your whining, just tired of everything Blake. So either get that ego of yours in check and own up to your responsibilities or get the fuck away from me as far as possible, where I don’t have to pay for the shit you get yourself into whenever you can’t keep yourself controlled. If you think I did that for you, you better think again pal.”

He wanted to say something else.

“Matter is closed Blake. If you don’t like it, then leave.”

I could hear him grunt softly while cussing in Latin. How I knew it was Latin was hard to explain, but it sounded different, like a higher dialect of English.

My insides wanted to explode, he was the only one that had that effect on me. He knew just what buttons to push, but I kept my pose as I walked up the stairs, to not show him how I truly feel inside.

Adrienne Woods was born and raised in South Africa, where she still resides on the East side of Johannesburg with her husband and two little girls. She's been writing for the past four years and in her free time she likes to review books of new and upcoming authors.

www.authoradriennewoods.com