Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (35 page)

“See that as payback.” He had a twinkle in his eyes but the lines on his face looked worried. “I’m so sorry, my sweet child, for everything that has happened to you.” He had tears in his eyes.

He knew too, did everyone know?

“They forced me to sit this one out.”

“Why?”

“Because they were going to strip you of your title and when I discovered that they never informed your dragon, well, Pedro made sure that he got an invitation really quick.”

“They what?”

“They never intended to send him an invitation. The Stan story was a lie. So I had to make sure that he got one, otherwise we would have had plenty more to sort out when he eventually discovered what they’d done.”

“It was you, Pappi. It’s not like that. He’s not my dragon,” I whined.

“He’s not? You did claim him, right? I remember that day when the others took him away from you, for a short while.”

“I set him free. He has no obligations to me.”

My Pappi started to laugh. “Elena. There are some things in this world that you cannot set free, and a Dent is one of them.”

“No, I said the words. I know it can be done. It released him from everything.”

“Ahh, now I get why he can’t hear your thoughts anymore.”

“What?”

“He came to me a couple of months ago, nice lad.”

I huffed. “Maybe sadistic and evil, but not nice.”

“You have still so much to learn and this one is going to be the hardest, Elena.”

He kissed me on my temple. “We need to have some tea again, real soon. I’ve missed you so much.”

“Missed you too,” I said ignoring his statement.

“For what it’s worth,” he said as he was starting to walk away, “it was fun witnessing that entrance.”

I giggled too. “Yeah, I probably have to pay for all the damages.”

“It’s against dragon law and you will learn the Dragon law soon. You won’t be billed for it, they were wrong tonight, Elena.” He smiled sweetly as I just stared at him. “Give him a chance. He is not so bad.”

Yeah, I know he’s not. I’d fallen for that part once.

I WENT BACK to the carriage as Emanual looked frantically for me. “Where the hell have you been, Elena?”

“Calm down, my Pappi wanted a word.”

“Your Pappi?”

“Just forget I said anything.” I remembered that not many people know about Pappi and my relation.

“Just go.” Emanual spoke to someone and I saw a figure with dark hair pulling off a robe and morphing. It was George. What the hell was he doing here?

Emanual opened the door and Becky was sitting next to Sammy inside the carriage.

I sighed.

“Oh, no missy. That sigh is not going to relieve you from any of the things that you have done tonight,” Becky started.

“Done tonight? I haven’t done anything!” I yelled back and plunged down onto the seat.

“Guys, seriously. I hate this fighting.”

“Fighting is sometimes good to get thick heads like her back to reality.”

“Oh, so now I’m a thick head, for what, Becky? Not telling Blake my every move?”

She chuckled. “No that would be too much for you, right Princess?”

I wanted to leap at her, I hated her so much at that moment and Master Longwei pushed me back.

“Enough, both of you!” He raised his voice as my anger flared up. Becky’s eyes reflected hurt, but it turned to anger the minute she realized that I wanted to strangle her.

“Now you’ve done it. Can’t you just be patient?” Sammy yelled at her.

“I’m not like you!” Becky yelled back at her.

“I said enough!” Master Longwei yelled again. “You act like five-year-olds.”

He shook his head and sat next to me.

The rest of the trip was quiet.

She made me so furious with her pushing and accusations, it was so Becky and right now I hated that part of her.

Angry tears welled up in my eyes, and guilt in my stomach. I couldn’t believe that I had been about to strangle her.

Still, tonight had drained me. To listen for almost an hour to what they’d had to say, to what Caleb had to say, was why I regretted making that stupid promise to my father. If he could just see what Caleb had become, he would take Areeth away from him. Not to mention what he would say about how his once best friend treated me. Like vermin.

I sniffed hard as I stared outside the window. It was dark, the clouds rumbled slightly and in the distance I saw dragons soaring through the sky; a part of me wanted to fly with them, but at what cost? I wasn’t going to make peace with the Rubicon soon.

I looked again and the dragons were gone. They just vanished.

I remembered what Pappi said, that Blake couldn’t hear my thoughts anymore and I was so relieved that he was finally out of my head.

What he was doing there tonight, well Emanual summed it up in so many words. He was finally ready to take on some responsibilities. Yeah, well, it was too late, idiot. That door had closed and it was never going to open again.

THE CARRIAGE LANDED and I was the first one to open the door. I smacked into a figure again and I just knew who it was.

“A word, Princess,” he barked.

“What do you want, Blake?” I said back at him and I could see he didn’t love the tone at all.

“I know you don’t want this arrangement, but from now on you will inform me of every meeting with the Council, especially the ones with the Ancients. Do I make myself clear?”

“Go fuck yourself. I don’t have time for your stupid games.” I pushed him aside, which wasn’t easy, but to my surprise he let me go.

I could hear him grunting as I walked through the main doors of the Academy and rushed through the hallway before Master Longwei wanted a word too.

I went straight to the bathroom and screamed at everything that was happening tonight.

They would really have stripped me of my title, and I knew I should’ve probably thanked the idiot, but I was so mad at him for how he’d destroyed everything.

All he did was destroy things.

I took a shower, and was surprised that neither Sammy nor Becky was back yet. I put on my pajamas.

I found my notepad, the one I had been drawing in during Art of War on my bed.

Oh shit
. They all saw that picture.
What was I thinking?

The picture of Billy had been torn out and on the page were the words, written in big bold letters, I’M SORRY. Nothing else, just those two words. I could only guess who the words belonged to, but I didn’t want it to be him, or I didn’t want to think that it could be him.

I put my notepad in my nightstand’s drawer and crawled into bed.

I didn’t want to close my eyes anymore but I was so tired, dead tired.

Constance hadn’t been joking last night when she said that it was going to be hard.

If my first day looked like this, I didn’t think that I wanted to get out of bed tomorrow.

And then there were the words that Blake had spoken tonight outside, to inform him of every meeting, yeah right. But the minute that left my thoughts, those two words that were scribbled on my notepad entered my mind.

It could’ve been Becky or Sammy too, it sounded more like them than him.

I grunted. I hated how all of my thoughts strayed back to that idiot.

No more. I was done.

DRIFTED AWAY, after a gazillion thoughts had entered my mind. Tonight’s events, that
graceful
entry of Blake, the way he’d told them that this meeting was over and how they’d just accepted it. Why couldn’t I be more like that? They were my abilities inside of him; still, they didn’t fear me at all, not the way they feared Blake. I guessed it had to do with them knowing what he was capable of.

Still, what had Emanual said? I couldn’t believe that. Sure he showed up, even though they’d tried to hide tonight’s hearing from him. I didn’t know that it was against Dragon law at all, but he didn’t seem too pleased to be there.

Then why had Emanual chosen those words?

Blake was still as arrogant as ever.

I found myself inside the cave again.

It was the cave that had changed drastically after the events that took place in there about a year ago.

Lucian was lying on the ground, already stung, but Paul, he was still alive, parading around as if Lucian’s iron blade had never killed him. Seymour was there too and Billy or Blake, I couldn’t tell the two apart in my dreams. It was like they mushed up into one, forming a new nightmare together.

Billy was sharpening Paul’s knife as Paul’s lips moved.

What he said wasn’t as audible as tonight’s sounds, of what I assumed were a dragon’s wings, lingered outside the cave.

They couldn’t hear it, only me.

Billy laughed and then the entire cave started to rumble just like City Hall but once again they didn’t see it, it was only me.

A loud explosion made them finally realize what was going on.

The Rubicon entered. He was big, just like the last time when I’d faced him in the Coliseum.

He incinerated Billy and Seymour on the spot with his fire as Paul transformed into a Wyvern. He looked like Penelope.

The Wyvern snapped at the back of the Rubicon’s tail and a loud growl escaped the Rubicon’s lips.

The Rubicon snapped backwards and caught Paul around his neck.

It wasn’t a fair match as he was shaken like a rag inside a dog’s mouth.

I looked away as he ripped off one of Paul’s wings viciously, and I could hear his guts splattering on the floor and wall.

I jolted in my bed and my breathing was hard. I stroked my face hard, as the images still lay fresh inside my mind.

What the hell was that?

My dreams had never changed like that before, where the Rubicon actually came to my rescue and killed off all my attackers.

If only the real one had gotten there in time that day, Lucian would still be alive.

I looked at my digital clock and it said it was three-thirty.

Becky and Sammy were both sound asleep in their beds as I got out and went to wash my face.

I tried to fall asleep again but it was no use. If only the library was still open…

The next day I skipped breakfast and spent almost the entire day inside the library.

I didn’t care much for school anymore and only went to the cafeteria to grab a sandwich for dinner.

I wasn’t ready to face Becky and Sammy, so I went to the tower, the one that was Lucian’s and my favorite place.

I sneaked out one of the maps and found a torch in the room and it lit up almost the entire tower.

I opened the map and started to delve into my sandwich.

I searched carefully each and every single name on the map.

Halfway through I heard something on top of the tower’s roof and my heart was beating like crazy again.

Stop this, Elena. You are not in Eikenborough anymore. This is Dragonia and you have people here who will assist if anything bad happens.

I shook off my fears, and climbed onto the ledge.

I grabbed the beam right above my head and swung my lower body over another and pushed myself onto the ledge.

The roof was inches above me and I needed a couple of seconds before I was going to be able to look at who was waiting.

I took a deep breath and pushed my body up and found…. Nothing!

My heart was racing even more as I looked around.

I wasn’t dreaming this. I knew I heard something up here, and to find nothing, just like in the library, made me feel as if I was really starting to lose my mind.

I climbed down and rolled up the map from the ground and grabbed my torch.

It was the only place in Dragonia Academy that carried some of Lucian’s presence, and I refused to give that up.

So I stayed, rolling down the map again and reading through the names one by one.

No noises came back, which I was grateful for, and guessed it was all really inside my mind.

I stared at the spot where Lucian and I had slept over the one night and my mind went back to that memory. It was the Tuesday, the day before he’d left and my gut feeling was so right. I would never see him again.

I lay back with my head against the wall and closed my eyes. It was just for a short while and then I had another stupid dream.

It wasn’t of what had happened to me; no it was a completely new one.

I dreamed that I opened my eyes slightly and saw Blake’s face. He was carrying me. I closed them again and could hear a soft hum, like a song, coming from his lips. It was so soothing. The door opened and after a short moment the soft mattress of my bed felt amazing against my body. A warm blanket was pulled over me and Becky whispered.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just bringing her back,” he said.

“You guys spoke?”

He didn’t reply. “When she asks, just say George brought her back.”

“Blake. When is this going to stop? Make her see.”

“It’s not how it works Becky. It’s my turn to be patient now.”

MY FIST KNOCKED on Constance’s door. She had to have seen it, why didn’t she tell me?

I knocked again and Constance opened the door. She didn’t look pleased at all. “You had to break down—”

“You knew about the barcode on her arm,” I interrupted what was probably a scolding.

She closed her eyes.

“You knew, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Blake, you’ve dealt with so many things.”

“You didn’t think that it could actually be a clue as to where she was.”

“I don’t think it was that sort of…” She sounded angry, as I didn’t see her point.

“You just don’t know how to search. Barcodes mean things are up for grabs, registered in some sort of database.”

Guilt washed over her face, and she grabbed her head. “I didn’t think, I’m sorry.”

“Is there anything else you know about, Constance?”

“No, I promise. It’s just the barcode.”

I nodded. “I’ll find wherever she was,” I said, sounding extremely eager.

“Blake. How?”

“Don’t worry, I actually do know really smart dragons, Constance.”

“You think it’s wise, giving her hope like that?”

“It’s not hope, I simply needed her help.”

“Okay,” she said and I left. I ran up the girls’ steps and stopped on the fourth floor in front of Elena’s door. I took a deep breath and ran three more floors up and knocked on the first door on the left.

Tabitha opened and smiled as she saw me.

“I need your help,” I said.

“Sure, anything.” She sounded so eager, I hated that.

“I’ll meet you tomorrow, early, in the library. Say six.”

“Six o’clock?”

“Please, Tabitha.”

“Okay, fine. See you at six.”

“Thanks.” I turned around to leave.

“You want to come in for a drink?”

“No, I’m fine. Thanks for offering though.”

She didn’t say anything and just closed the door.

A LOUD BUZZ woke me up and I found myself…in my room.

Becky and Sammy stirred and woke up.

How the hell did I get back to my room?

I remembered the dream but couldn’t remember the dialogue that clearly. Something about George and being patient.

“Morning,” Becky sulked as I just stared at my bed.

“How did I get back?”

“You ready to hear it?”

“Becky,” Sammy said.

“What? I’m just saying it will prove to Elena that there are actually people here worrying about her.”

“Why do you always fight?”

“I’m not fighting, Sammy. I’m just frustrated. I want my friend back.” She stared at me. “I want to know what happened to you, where you were.”

She had tears lingering in her eyes as she said it. “We woke up and got worried about you, so I phoned George and we found you up in the tower.”

“George carried me?”

She nodded.

That stupid dream.
Why was I even dreaming that, I didn’t want Blake like that, did I?

None of it was making any sense, none.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry about last night. I…” I sighed. “It’s just hard, that’s all.”