Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (4 page)

“When you are done sulking, Becky wants to see you,” I said and went back down.

I ran down all the stairs and went back into my room.

Sammy was sitting in the lounge with Dean and Becky came out of the bathroom. “You find him?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “He’ll be—” a knock on the door interrupted my sentence. “Sorry again.” I hugged her and she smiled. She walked to the door and she left.

“Please tell me they are going to get back together.”

“Yeah, I told her this was stupid. She shouldn’t listen to me.”

“Elena,” Sammy started.

“No, you were right. I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

“Your theories, not your mouth.”

By around five, Becky was still not back. I started to worry about her but felt my Cammy vibrating. I really didn’t want to pick it up but I wanted the old Blake and it was as if I was getting him now. That scared me too, because he was unpredictable.

I picked up eventually and his holograph appeared.

“Did you find him?”

“Yes, he was on the roof,” I said.

“Did the two love birds make up?” He sounded like the new Blake.

“They are not back yet, so I guess it’s a good sign.”

“It is.” He had a knowing sort of evil grin on his face.

It was quiet for a few seconds and I looked at his holograph for the first time. He was looking down.

“Elena what do you want?”

“You phoned me,” I said.

“That’s not what I mean. Sometimes I just don’t know, something that is not supposed to be impossible. But it is.”

Make it easy and just tell him.
You promised Tabitha.
“I don’t know.”

He nodded his head. “Fine, I’ll wing it,” he said and I couldn’t help but laugh softly. Again, there was silence, and I heard Sammy and Dean leaving.

“Hey, what is going on in that mind of yours?” Blake asked.

I shook my head and wiped off a stray tear. Why was this so hard? It was Blake, for crying out loud. The boy that never knew what he wanted.

“Talk to me, Elena. I can’t read your mind, remember.”

I smiled.

“I’m breaking too many promises, Blake.” I looked at him.

“So, it’s Etan. You want to wait?”

“It’s not just Etan.” I sighed. “I made another promise to Tabitha.”

“Tabitha?”

“You gave me no choice, Blake. I really needed your help in classes and you never…” I couldn’t finish. That time of my life was hard and I was messed up with everything I had to learn, everything I had to deal with.

“What promise?” He wasn’t angry.

“That she could have you, I just need the dragon.”

He nodded. “And I have no say in this?”

“Blake, it’s not that easy. It wasn’t that easy. You might have easily forgotten that, but I can’t.”

“Oh, believe me I haven’t. I know what I was like, Elena. It’s why I’m trying to make it up to you. Being a bit nicer.”

“A bit nicer? It’s as if you are stuck in some Twilight Zone.”

He chuckled but his smile disappeared. “So what, you are going to make promises left, right and center without consulting me first?”

“Without consulting you? Blake you hated—”

“Yes, you said that already. Hated your guts. I still do from time to time, especially when you are so hard-headed that nobody can get through to you.”

“I just don’t know if I can break this promise, Blake.”

His lips curved downwards and he nodded his head. I couldn’t look at him, as this was exactly the same as rejecting him and whatever he felt towards me, whether it was real or not.

“So we’re back at square one,” he mumbled, sighed, and I could see how he pulled his hand through his hair.

“Okay, fine. Whatever, Elena,” he said and his holograph disappeared.

I closed my eyes. My heart wanted to break into a thousand pieces. I couldn’t believe we were back there, and the worst part was that it was all my doing this time. He’d been perfect the past few days—well, not counting today. Or maybe he’d been perfect today too, letting me off easy so that he could be with Tabitha without admitting it, or feeling guilty about it.

He made me so confused.

THE NEXT MORNING as I opened my door, voices rang inside my ears. Sometimes I really dislike my enhanced hearing.

“That is what they said, this morning.”

“So he is back for real?” another girl a few levels below me said.

“Tabitha is going to flip,” the girl said in an excited tone.

I froze. Blake was back.

“I’m sure she already knows,” the other girls said.

I carried on walking down the stairs and both girls cleared their throats as I reached them.

My eyes barely looked up. By the awkwardness streaming off their bodies, and staring at the ground, I could tell more or less that they spoke about Blake.

What was he doing back?

He said three days, it was only day two.

“You think she heard us?” the one whispered softly.

I didn’t care for the other one’s reply. It was times like these I just wanted to yell, “Yes, enhanced hearing here,” but I didn’t.

Everyone in the hallways spoke about Blake’s return.

I found Sammy with Becky and George at a table outside.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You are sharing a room with him.” She didn’t wait on a reply as she saw me. “Good, you’re here. My brother here?”

I shrugged. George was sharing a room with him now?

“Elena, he must have said something.”

“He didn’t, okay?” I spoke softly.

“You guys fight again? I thought at least that would be over now after your trip.”

I didn’t know what to say, as it was something I was really tired of too. “It’s complicated.”

Sammy just shook her head and went to the buffet line.

I looked over my shoulder at Tabitha’s table, the one she and Blake usually sat at, but she wasn’t there either.

Flashes of another reunion filled my head and my gut felt heavy, turning with a nauseated feeling.

What was it going to be like in the future? Blake being there whenever I needed the Rubicon and leaving at night to be with her?

I pushed the future to the back of my head. It seemed so dull now. Maybe not finding that missing ingredient wasn’t a bad thing.

I dished up and ate my breakfast while the others were talking about all sorts of things. I was glad that George and Becky had made up. It was weird not seeing the two of them together, even if it was for just a day.

When the bell rang we made our way to Art of War.

Becky put her arm on my shoulder as we walked. “So what did you guys fight about?”

“It’s stupid. It wasn’t really a fight. A fight is where both parties argue until the problem is resolved. Blake...” I took a huge breath and shook my head.

“Yeah, tell me about it. Fighting with them is not fun at all.”

I smiled at the way she said it and took another deep breath.

At least I would have all my subjects with him.

We passed through the huge doorway of the Parthenon Dome. Grimdoe was still, like all the statues should be. I remembered the heart attack he almost gave me the first day I set foot in this class.

It felt like eons ago.

Most of the students waited on the bleachers. Professor Mia made a couple of jokes with the first row and Amy, the Night Villain from my second year, well after I turned into a dragon, shared Art of War with us now that she had been claimed.

My eyes found Tabitha immediately. Her snow white hair wasn’t hard to miss. Peter was on her one side, but the other spot next to her was empty.

Where the hell was Blake?

“Etan, huh?” Professor Mia yelled and my gaze broke away from Tabitha and Peter.

I smiled and nodded just before I reached her. It was the first time I had Art of War since the return. “Who would’ve guessed?”

She stroked my arm. “What you did for Constance, bringing back Anouk, it was beautiful Elena.”

“It was nice to watch, that I can say.”

“Go sit,” she ordered, with soft eyes, and I took the spot in between Becky and Sammy on the second row.

All the students were there, except Blake.

Please
, I begged,
don’t do this. Not again.
It was the only time I could truly be with him without feeling so guilty.

It was all my fault. I knew I should’ve kept my stupid mouth shut last night.

“Okay, Elena?” Professor Mia asked and my head snapped up at her. “Where is Blake?”

“I don’t know,” I said and sighed. “Is he really back?”

“Yes, he came early this morning.” Professor Mia squinted and looked at Tabitha. “You know where he is?”

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw her shaking her head slightly. He wasn’t with her this morning?

“Okay, well, the big guy is not coming so I guess we can start.”

She started to speak about a new contact sport—well, new for me, who’d missed classes for a month.

From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was really excited.

I easily caught a couple of things: that the sport originated from Portugal; that you had to use your mind and balance. What sport didn’t demand that from you?

After five minutes I lost interest as my mind swirled with thoughts of Blake, Tabitha and I. A trio of people fighting for each other’s affection. It was so draining.

A huge mechanical noise filled the dome. I looked up as every other student in class looked at the ceiling.

One of the panels started to shift open.

I hadn’t even known it could open.

Professor Mia stopped and stared at it too. She walked over to the cupboard and got a remote. She pressed the button and it shifted a couple of inches closed before it moved in the other direction again.

We all started to laugh as she hit the remote against her palm, trying to make it work, and after the umpteenth time she gave up and chucked the remote back into the cupboard.

“Okay, I’ll get someone out to look at that later.” She came back and carried on with her lecture as we all just stared at the big hole that was starting to appear in the ceiling.

“People, it’s just the sky.”

“I didn’t even know it could open.” Becky had the same thought as me.

“Well, we always struggle to get it closed, so now you know why we never open it. This is what happens.”

The class laughed.

She carried on with where she’d left off and this time I was even more lost than before.

A whooshing sound drowned Professor Mia’s lecture. A small smile tucked at the corners of my lips. I’d heard that sound once. It scared the living crap out of me then, but today, it did the opposite.

“What is that?” Becky asked.

Sammy gasped, followed by a couple of other gasps too. When I looked back up I saw Blake, in his dragon form, hovering over the gap in the ceiling.

“How the hell are you going to ride that?” Becky left her two-cent comment as he started to descend.

“What is this?” Professor Mia asked him in Latin. “It’s Art of War, not transformations Blake, and you’re late.”

“Sorry for my tardiness,” he answered in a deep voice as he landed. “Dragon is what I am from now on, so you better get used to it, Mia.”

I sucked my lips and closed my eyes. My stomach was fluttering as I kept repeating his words in my mind.
Dragon is what I am…from now on.
I’d promised Tabitha I just wanted the dragon, she could have the human. He was doing this for me.

“Elena?” Professor Mia asked.

I responded with a shrug.

Becky and Sammy both had that “need to know now” look on their faces as they saw how I desperately tried to hide a bigger smile.

“Care to tell Blake to transform back? He is as big as my class and there is not enough space for the big guy and all of us.”

“I’m not that kind of Dragonian. He can do whatever he wants.”

A gurgle came from Blake. “Yeah, right,” he said and fell onto his stomach. A slight rumble rippled up the bleachers.

Professor Mia just stared at him. “Fine, we work around him then.”

Professor Mia carried on but we were all distracted by Blake rolling on his back, playing with his talons, and grooming himself. We couldn’t stop snickering.

Professor Mia shot him glares every five to ten seconds and he would freeze every time she did that.

“Not cool, Blake,” she eventually said. “Change back, please.”

“Nope! Can’t do it.”

“Fine, then leave, as I need the space to lecture and you are a distraction.”

He got up and started to ascend back through the roof.

“And close my roof, I know it was you!” Professor Mia yelled behind him. A couple of seconds after he disappeared, the roof started to close.

We all just laughed.

I felt as if I was going to burst from happiness and didn’t even care to glance over at Tabitha.

The next half an hour wasn’t so easy though. I sparred against Mia as Blake was loafing like usual—well, this time he had done it to make a statement. How long it was going to go on like that, only he knew.

When the bell rang, we had a fifteen-minute break to go and take a shower for our next class. My heart started to flutter as I thought about next period.

It was Aviant, which meant I was going to fly on Blake like a normal Dragonian for the first time. That picture in my mind was overpowering. I was excited, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time, because it was flying, and it was Blake.

A couple of months ago he saw Aviant classes as sleeping time and would just sleep under a tree with Tabitha next to him. Peter and I, well we had to endure that, while all the other dragons and their Dragonians were having fun in the sky. I knew it was going to be different this time.

“What the hell was that about?” Becky was the first to ask.

“He doesn’t want me to break a promise.”

“What promise?”

I laughed. “A stupid one.” I looked at her and raised my eyebrows once. “Beat your ass?”

She laughed and we both raced up the steps. That shower was so mine.

AFTER TEN MINUTES, Becky and I found George, Sammy and Dean waiting for us at the staircase.

Samantha had hardly worked up a sweat. Dragons really had it so easy.

She wanted to know the same thing as Becky, and I gave her the exact same answer.

“So what, he’s going to be a dragon from now on?” George asked with a twinkle in his eyes and deep dimples in his cheeks as he walked with his arm across Becky’s shoulder.

“Something like that.”

“For how long?” Sammy sounded worried.

“Relax, it won’t be forever. Sammy.”

“Elena, he’s not one of the most beautiful dragons out there.”

I faked outrage. “I happen to like my dragon’s form, thank you very much.”

Sammy just smiled and put her arm around my shoulder.

We finally reached the coliseum where Professor Vladimir and Professor Alexandra were waiting for us.