Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (40 page)

“How did Oliver find us Emanual?” I teased him.

“They bumped into me along the way. I looked suspicious with the cooler.” They dropped the cooler bag as one my group members went to see what was inside.

He dropped off papers that featured Elena’s interviews from the past couple of days. I would read them later tonight when the pain grew unbearable. I hated what had happened to her in Areeth and wanted to skin Caleb alive.

“You getting old?” I joked.

“Easy,” he joked and laughed.

“So what, they got her birthday wrong again?” I didn’t like how they kept getting it wrong.

“Nope, they had a huge cake around twelve.” He chuckled and I smiled. “She will forgive you, Blake.”

“I don’t know, Emanual. She doesn’t even want me to explain that I had nothing to do with it.”

“She will, eventually.” He had that knowing smile on his face and I squinted at him again. Had he spoken to her last night?

“What the hell did you say?”

“Nothing, just that she is being stubborn, which is the truth.”

I huffed. “I hope that is all you said to her last night.”

He laughed again and rested back into the camp chair he’d stolen from Rikus when he’d gotten up to get a new drink.

I stared at Oliver again. “Oliver, what are you guys doing here?”

“Getting your flag.” He kept staring at my hand.

Emanual and I both laughed.

“Not going to happen, dude,” I said and threw him the stick, which he caught but then I switch off my persuasion and loved the way his face changed.

“A stick, seriously?”

Emanual and I laughed again as Rikus handed me a new beer, and Emanual one too.

“Your father is really getting nervous, Blake.” Emanual desperately tried to hide his grin as he opened the beer and took a big gulp that almost finished half of it.

“Oh, I really don’t care,” I said and took a gulp too.

“We’ll see, he has pretty amazing tactics,” Oliver said. He’d tried to find our flag for the past month, and instead we’d taken his, time and time again, forcing them to go home, rest two days and try again. He seriously hated my guts.

“Tactics. None of them will make me part with that flag.”

“It represents too much.” Emanual simply stated.

“You Dents take everything way too seriously,” Oliver said.

“As it should be,” George chirped.

I chuckled.

It fell silent again. Oliver was really sure of himself, but his entire team was here, after I’d showed him that our flag was nothing but a stick. He hadn’t gotten up and told his team to look for it. It couldn’t be the beer. They had beer and could drink as much as they wanted.

I looked at Emanual. They weren’t acting like a team who was desperately trying to find our flag. They were making themselves comfortable around our fire, not searching like a team would.

Emanual didn’t even look at me.

“What are you not telling me?”

Emanual raised his eyebrow slightly. “Nothing.”

There was something, otherwise he would’ve said
I don’t know what you mean,
or
talking about
.

Suddenly, George gasped and I looked at him. He was tuned in again.

“What?”

He smiled. Like someone who’d just found their favorite toy again. Becky. “You were right about the planning Blake, but wrong about what they were planning.” He looked at Oliver. “Sir Robert’s tactic,” he looked at Emanual. “Bringing them here.”

“Ah, man.” One of his other team members sang.

Emanual just laughed. “Dents, what can I say?”

It felt as if life poured back into my soul. That was why he was so sure about Elena forgiving me. “She’s after my flag?” I asked him, and couldn’t help the huge grin. “And you told her were it was, didn’t you.”

He roared with laughter. “I serve the Princess, Blake until the day my King is ready.”

“Idiot.”

At once all of us got up and went straight for the cave we’d fixed with booby traps. Now I was worried that she might get hurt.

The run was hard. George and I were a couple of paces in front, with Taylor right behind us. She sure was one fast girl.

We found Dean and Sammy at the cave’s entrance and Sammy let out a huge shrilling sound and then she laughed her hyena laugh. I changed direction and ran past them through the trees. I could hear Becky and Elena already inside, working as a team.

George had gotten new life back in his bones, and leaped for the upper wall of the entrance. He pushed himself up, but I chose one down the path while Rikus and Meg stayed to distract Sammy and Dean. If I knew Taylor, she was already inside with George.

I entered the cave, nearest to the flag. I could hear Becky screaming with laughter. George had reached her.

“Elena, go for it!” She yelled, and I moved swiftly through the small cave sideways.

I was finally inside and found Taylor close to Elena. She was wearing all black, tight pants that clung to her legs and a grey long sleeve shirt, with a matching vest.

She ran hard and then Taylor swung the log with Elena on it.
What the hell was she doing?

Elena kept her balance and to my surprise kept running forward even though it was spinning.

She leaped for the next log and I was glad when she caught the railing, hoisted herself over and carried on running.

Move you idiot.
I said and ran forward to the front, through another passage that blocked my view of Elena.

The chains rattled again. Taylor was on Elena’s log once more. She was going to do the same thing she’d done the last time. I didn’t like it. Taylor really took winning extremely seriously. To such an extent that she didn’t care whom she had to hurt to win. Well, I did.

I exited the sideways passage.

One of the logs Taylor was on, swung around and around, and Elena had just leapt for the podium.

She caught it just in time, almost giving me a heart attack and pulled herself up. Then she sprinted towards the flag.

“Blake!” Taylor yelled.

A grin appeared on my face.
Not this time, Dad, I don’t care who you send.

I ran as fast as I could and just as Elena reached for the flag, I collided with her and she fell on top of me as we slid off the clearing. A yelp left her mouth.

I grabbed with one hand and held onto the ledge, while the other one had her hand securely in mine.

I could hear her body colliding with rock.

“YES!” Taylor yelled. She chanted our victory and it echoed through the entire cave.

“Are you okay?” I asked and could hear her laughter below me. She was fine.

George laughed as Becky grunted, but she laughed with him after a few short seconds. “You tried, Elena!”

“Not good enough!” She yelled back.

She still dangled from my hand, but her heart was beating from pure adrenaline. At least she trusted me enough to know that I would’ve caught her. She looked up and then that disappointing laugh escaped her lips. “Seriously, you couldn’t just part with it once? Just once.” She spoke up, clinging on to my hand for dear life. The drop was far; she would break at least both her legs and a couple of ribs if she fell.

“You have no idea what that flag represents.” I pulled her hand once and she came flying upward to me. I caught her around her waist.

Her face was inches from mine and she took a deep breath as she stared at me. “Very disappointed, Blake.”

She didn’t look upset.

“Sorry, seems to be my field of expertise.”

She giggled and shook her head. I pushed her up onto the ledge and watched how she climbed onto the clearing again. My other hand reached the ledge too and I pushed myself up.

Taylor was still cheering. She was such a bad winner. It irritated the living crap out of me.

“You guys take this Dragon League business seriously.” She kept staring at Taylor and her Cammy buzzed. She smiled as she opened it.

My father’s face appeared. “Did you get it?”

“Nope, he is way too fast, picked up on it as we entered the cave.”

My father grunted and his holograph disappeared.

I laughed softly as she smiled. We started to move out of the cave. The flag was securely inside my hand.

I helped Elena onto the upper platform that led to the sideways passage, and we moved out of the cave.

Once outside I could hear Taylor teasing Sammy and Dean.

What is it with this chick? It was just a game. When we reached them, she grabbed the flag from me, and waved it around, making more cheering noises.

My sister just stared at her, which made me laugh. George and Becky were gone, no surprise there.

Sammy caught my eye. “I really thought you would let Elena just take it, Blake. Just this once.”

“Not that flag, sorry.”

“Urgh, you are such an idiot,” she said and Elena laughed.

“Well if you were on my team, you would’ve tried everything in your ability not to lose that flag too. Dad is just sour because I’m close to breaking his team’s record,” I said. “It’s very bad form using Elena like this.”

Samantha cackled again and so did Elena.

We walked back to the campsite.

“So what gives me the pleasure of your company on this beautiful night? Shouldn’t you be celebrating somewhere?”

“We partied last night. I didn’t think you would even know what day this was, wow, I’m impressed.”

I chuckled.
If only she knew.

“Happy Birthday, Elena.”

“Thank you, Blake.”

“Nineteen, wow.”

“Yeah, if only people would treat me like a nineteen-year-old and not a ten-year-old, that would be awesome.”

I smiled. Not knowing what she meant by it. “You still haven’t answered my question. Gracing us with your presence. Wait let me guess, my father put you up to this?”

“No,” she sounded a bit uncomfortable. “Ralph dropped this off.” She handed me my journal, the one with all my poems that had been missing for the past five months. “The day he demonstrated the super suits. That was your idea?” she asked.

I nodded. “I knew nobody was going to be able to make a saddle that was going to fit my fat ass, so I had to think of a better plan to make you feel safe and secure.”

She laughed again.

“You opened it.” I looked down at my journal. She shared the ability. The one that was the key.
Shit.
Now I know why she’d used it so many times.

“The pink kiss was a brilliant idea but I figured it out really fast, sorry.”

“So I take it you read them.” I didn’t like that one bit. My voice said it. Some of the stuff was dark, very dark. Things I didn’t want her to ever find out. Irene…

“Please don’t be mad,” she touched my arm softly, it send a million volts up my arm. “They were the most beautiful words I’ve ever read. Who would’ve thought? You, a poet.”

I just stared at her.

“You should actually be grateful that this journal ended up with me. It was those words that made me realize what a stupid idiot I’ve been,” she babbled.

What?
  I was totally not expected that. She was really so different from all the other humans I knew. A lot like her father in some ways. “You are not an idiot, Elena, you figured out how to open my journal.” I was still disappointed. But the journal was private.

She laughed softly. “Yes, because I had to know what was in there. Such bad character.”

I chuckled. “Well if it’s my words that changed your mind, then I’m grateful for this book. I actually thought it would do the opposite.”

“You mean the beginning of the journal?” She smiled.

“I did plenty of shit, Elena.”

“We are all capable of bad things Blake. It’s in the past. Yours was dark. You had to act and couldn’t help it.”

I stared at her. “As easy as that?”

She laughed. “Oh no, I was quite shocked about all the nasty stuff you did. I couldn’t really imagine how dark you really were, but that last three quarters… it just shows you how powerful those poems were.”

I smiled, put my arm around her and pulled her into my side. This felt normal, I felt normal again. I didn’t worry about her like I had the past two months.  I’d really never expected this in a million years.

We reached the campsite and Emanual laughed at Taylor who was now pushing the flag in Oliver’s face.

“I’m disappointed, Princess,” Emanual teased her.

“Not as disappointed as me,” she said back.

She couldn’t be that disappointed. She must know that the flag represented her, and I just showed her that I would do anything to protect the flag.

I sat down and she took George’s seat.

More rustles came from behind and George was walking with Becky in his arms, whispering sweet words in her ears.