Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (13 page)

He grabbed me into a death grip he should’ve never gotten the chance to get me in.

“This is pathetic, Elena. You are better than this—or are you?” he roared as he got me in between his legs on the ground. He squeezed a tiny bit harder, and I bit him on his leg as hard as I could.

I pushed myself up as he pulled his leg back. I hated this Blake. It was…

The Dent was wearing off. I didn’t know why I thought about it, but it had to be that.

He was going to hate my guts again.

“You bit me.” He trampled on his one leg. “Only dogs bite, Elena.”

“I thought you wanted to teach me to fight dirty. Make up your mind, Blake.”

He shook his head. “To think I wasted a Dent on you.” He had so much hatred in his voice and I was having no more of it. I went for him again and in two seconds I was in his death grip for the umpteenth time. I grunted. I was so furious. I knew this was going to happen. It was a fucking spell, one that didn’t work on the Rubicon because he was too strong.

“Calm down, Elena.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down.” I tried to get out of his grip but he just held me tighter.

“Calm down.” He’s voice was gentle and right at my ear.

It felt as if I could breathe fire. “Let me go.”

“Calm down.” He spoke once more. “I didn’t mean any of those things. But I had to teach you the first rule of this class.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Anger. If you fight with anger, you will lose.” He still had me in his grip. His body was behind mine, with one of his arms around my neck and the other one holding my arm behind my back. His one leg was blocking mine and I had no idea how he kept his balance. “I wanted to use your father’s promise, breaking it, but that would’ve been cruel. I really didn’t think this one was going to work as well as it did.”

“You made that up?” I was furious.

“Of course I made that up. Now calm down.”

“Urgh.” I let out a frustrated grunt, hating that I’d just showed him what he’d become to me.

“Deep breaths,” he spoke.

“I still don’t understand.”

“If you must use anger to win, then make sure you are where I am. Be the one that makes the other one angry, Elena. Crawl under their skin and push buttons. Make them raving mad. Because if you attack in anger, you will lose.”

I sighed and took another deep breath.

“Sorry about the things I said. I really didn’t mean them.”

“Okay, fine. You proved your point,” I said. “Don’t attack in anger.” I was still in his death grip.

“That’s my girl.” He gave me a soft kiss below my ear and let me go.

I felt like an idiot.

“I think that’s all for tonight. You’ve done good.” He grinned.

I gave him a sarcastic look. “Good. You serious? You had me in so many grips.”

“The beginning you got out of them almost as fast as I thought I got you in them. You messed up when I started pushing some buttons.” He opened his water bottle and took a few gulps.

Okay, so don’t attack in anger.
He handed me his bottle and I took a few gulps. I still didn’t like how he’d used Tabitha’s name, and to think it’d had the effect he wanted.
That was so stupid, Elena.

He walked over to me and smiled as he wrapped his arms around me.

“I don’t know if I should thank you or kick you.”

“Is the thank you a violent gesture too?”

I couldn’t help but laugh and gave him a hug back. “You really scared me there for a minute. I saw the old Blake.”

“I can still become him, Elena. Whenever I need to.”

“Still, I wasn’t so fond of him.”

He just smiled. “I was an idiot, I know. I said sorry already for that.”

“You did,” I said, remembering that day he’d told me everything I’d made him feel when I came to Paegeia.

We walked back to the Academy.

“When I get back, we can practice that head-butt.”

“Who am I going to practice it on?”

“I heal fast,” he said and flinched. “Show me your arm.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine, Elena. I almost gave myself away there.”

“You what?”

“When I saw the scrape, and that you’d gotten hurt. Well, I almost stopped, and then my lesson would’ve been wasted.”

I pulled up my sleeve and showed him the scrape.

He touched it gently and the warm zing sensation spread all over the burn. When he took his hand away, it was gone.

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. One thing I would say is that I’m never going to forget that lesson.”

“Good, as you should never forget it.”

He opened the main door. It was like ten o’clock and I was dead tired.

He hugged me on the podium again. “Sweet dreams, Princess.” His lips brushed my head.

A throat cleared, which made us both jump. “Tomorrow, Elena,” Blake said in a serious tone as he let me go.

I had to suppress my laughter. “Good night, Master Longwei.”

“Yes, I hope it is a good night, Elena,” he said while watching Blake’s retreating figure run up the boys’ stairs two steps at a time.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Still, earlier tonight, when he’d said that he’d wasted that Dent on me, whatever that meant, brought another feeling of doubt in the pit of my stomach. He really sounded like the old Blake, ready to tear my guts out. It was cruel, but he’d made his point. Don’t attack in anger.

FRIDAY CAME FASTER than I wanted it to. Classes went super-fast.

Blake was in his element and it was evident that he was built for war and all that crap. He thrived on it.

We were so different from one another.

At two o’clock Becky, Sammy and I were waiting in the main lobby. I’d asked Master Longwei this morning if Becky and Sammy could go with, but he’d declined, because he knew that I had to take a hundred people through to the other side this weekend. If that fell over to Monday or Tuesday, well, it was his reason and he didn’t want me to be distracted at all. It was so stupid.

Blake came running down the stairs real fast with a huge bag over his shoulder.

He took mine, opened his bag, put mine inside, then zipped it up.

“Please, be careful.” Sammy was the first to speak.

“Samantha,” Blake got back up and put the bag over his shoulder again. “I’m the Rubicon. Don’t forget that.”

“You are still my brother, idiot. And even if you are the Rubicon, you are not indestructible. Be careful.”

“Fine,” he said, giving her a one arm hug and a quick kiss on the head.

“You too, Elena,” Becky said.

“I’m just taking them in and out. Nothing hard,” I spoke.

“Still, you never know what could happen. Be safe and come back. Both of you.”

I didn’t like how they acted. Like they knew something bad was going to happen.

I gave both girls a hug and walked with Blake to the gate where Master Longwei was waiting for us.

He had a few words with Blake and then I turned around as Blake started to strip down. He was going to transform.

When the hulking beast of a dragon stood in his place, it was our cue to leave.

I grabbed hold of his paw this time and he flew with me to the Port of Elm.

Traveling to Areeth, back to David, was faster this time as the scientists had connected an elevator that went to that destination in two ticks.

I had to say goodbye to him and take the elevator alone, as Blake still didn’t trust that mode of transportation. He’d tried it once a long time ago and didn’t like the effect it had on him. I remembered it like yesterday. It was a horrible feeling, but mine went away the minute we stopped. Blake struggled days later with getting himself balanced again.

He was really different than any of us.

He stayed with me and answered a couple of their questions about getting the first hundred out of Etan. He was just like Lucian when it came to speaking in public—a natural. I had to learn the hard way.

Blake left immediately as I was safe from the cockroaches. He didn’t want me to fly with him because he still didn’t have a saddle that could keep me safe and secure on his back. And he also wanted to see how fast he could get there.

The first time took us more than two weeks to get to David, but then again, we were on a different mission too. Finding his orbs. I still had no idea what it was they could do, and by the sound of it, neither did he.

He just said that part hadn’t come to him yet.

King Helmut picked me up himself at the port. They’d set up camp after that night I’d told the Ancients that nobody was going to be put into quarantine and had been camping out, waiting for Emanual to come back with that special something King Helmut wanted.

I wondered what it could be. Did he have family that side too, and asked his dragon to make sure that they still existed? A sister, perhaps?

It was really sad to think how many people had lost loved ones. People they had no idea if they would ever see again.

“Elena, am I glad to see you.” He smiled and gave me a fatherly hug. “Where on earth is Blake?”

I smiled at him. “He doesn’t like the elevators so he is going to meet us there.” I knew he wasn’t that fast yet, as King Helmut wouldn’t have asked where he was.

We took an SUV and drove the last couple of miles back to the lodge.

The campsite was set up yards from the lodge.

It was good to see everyone again. Luke and Daisy, the little ones. I couldn’t wait to get more of their family and friends away from Etan, away from that danger. My stomach turned into knots knowing that Blake was going to go in for three days.

He was adamant about finding Maxine, Nicky and Leana, and although I wanted them safe too, especially for Tom and August, the two of them had no idea what they were asking from me.

If anything happened to Blake…I couldn’t even think about it.

Connie gave me the room I had the first time we came here. She was worried sick about David: although she hadn’t said anything, it was evident on her face.

Not having contact with David for the past week, knowing that he was in Etan, would do that to someone.

Annie and Constance kept me company during dinner and I really was so happy that at least I saved one of Constance’s family members.

I went to bed around ten. Blake still wasn’t anywhere to be seen and I had tried to phone him a couple of times, but his voicemail was the only thing that came up.

I struggled to fall asleep, and dreamed again about the foretelling Blake had seen about the Saadedine and the missing ingredient.

I wished I could dream about what the missing ingredient was, then I would welcome this sort of torture, but it never was revealed to me.

Blake’s dragon form was so tiny against the Saadedine. Was Blake really telling me the truth that it wasn’t going to be that ratio when we found him, or did he only say that to make my own fear less?

The Saadedine opened his mouth and released a ball of yellow with green flames. Paul’s flame.

It connected with the pink kiss and then something crazy happened.

It consumed the pink kiss. The green flame spread like a virus through the pink kiss and connected hard with Blake’s dragon form. I watched as Blake burned from the inside out and I couldn’t do anything. I just stood there frozen, staring in horror at how my dragon started to disintegrate.

He roared, a roar I had never heard before. It was painful, and I just watched in shock.

Then he exploded.

I jumped up and found myself still in bed. I took huge breaths as sweat ran down my temples. My hands trembled. My entire body trembled.

Was that going to happen?

I saw a stir in the couch and jumped. The night light went on and Blake’s figure appeared sitting inside the chair.

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to. I knew he’d seen that too.

He just looked at me with a worried expression on his face.

“I hate my fucking dreams.”

He smiled softly as if my voice brought him back out of whatever was going on in his mind, and got up, then came over, sat next to me and kissed me softly on the shoulder. It felt so good to have him here, safe.

“I don’t.” He rested his chin on my shoulder. “They tell me so much, especially of the things we don’t know yet.”

“Blake, you don’t know if that is the truth.”

“Still, it gives me plenty of hints, Elena. Like that one told me to watch out for his fire.” He pushed himself off the bed and took off his shirt.

I looked away from his perfectly sculpted body and found the time on the digital clock. It showed three in the morning.

“Not so bad.” I smiled.

“I could’ve been faster.”

I shook my head. It was as if he was never satisfied with any of his abilities. My abilities. And he had to give it all up for me to be able to wield my fire while he was in human form. How was he going to do that?

I lay back down and pulled the covers over me. The bed shifted again and I felt Blake’s warm body next to me. I didn’t even need a blanket to keep me warm when he was near.

I turned around and shifted closer to his body.

It felt good. He snaked his arm underneath my head and held me slightly.

I tried to listen for a heartbeat, but there was nothing. It felt so weird. No sound was coming from him whatsoever. It was as if he wasn’t really there at all.

We drifted away faster than I thought we would, and I hated that tomorrow was going to be the day that our paths were going to part again, but he’d made a promise and felt sort of the way I did about breaking them. So I had no choice but to let him do what it was he did best and believe that I would see him again. After all, he was the Rubicon.

THE NEXT MORNING I found Blake’s spot empty. I got up and went down to the dining area where I found him sitting at a table digging into a huge plate of bacon, eggs, sausages—you name it. All the food groups that made a breakfast were there.

Constance was keeping him company with a cup of coffee in her hands sitting in the opposite chair.

She was such a beautiful person and her dragon form was even more beautiful.

“Good morning sleepy head,” Constance smiled.

“Morning. I really don’t think it’s a good one,” I sulked.

“Stop sulking, it doesn’t suit you Elena,” Blake said between bites.

“Your food is not going to run away.” I looked at him.

“I’m hungry. I didn’t have dinner last night.”

“What, you didn’t devour a deer on the way?”

“No, I couldn’t find any. And even if I did, it wouldn’t fill me.”

Constance laughed at him.

“Morning, Elena.” Connie came out of the kitchen wearing an apron.

“Morning,” I smiled.

“Can I whip you up some eggs and bacon?”

“Eggs and toast will be fine.”

King Helmut entered and came to sit at our table too.

It was followed by small groups of troops. Women and men alike. The breakfast was festive and they spoke about plenty of things, about the people that we were going to get out today.

Half of them were going to stay in the lodge but the other half had to stay in the tents. They were going to have to stay like that for the rest of the month until the first sector of the new houses was finished. They weren’t farms, but at least they would have a home for now.

When Etan was free, they could then decide what they wanted to do. Go back with the deeds to their farm and start farming again the way the used to, or sell their land to whomever wanted it.

A part of me didn’t know how any of them would want to take their farming duties again, but then again it was all they knew, so maybe some would keep their land. Especially if it had been in their families for generations.

If that was the case, I would make sure—no, my father would make sure that they were all safe. He was going to come home. He just had to come home. I still didn’t even know if he was alive or not and had to keep my father’s existence a secret for now. Nobody on the other side could know the truth until the right time came. If that time was going to come, I didn’t know.

Blake finally finished his breakfast and stood up when Connie came to take away his plate. “Thank you, Connie. That was, like always, so satisfying.”

She smiled at him. “It is my pleasure, Blake. I know how to cook for dragons. Just promise me that you are going to bring him out soon.”