Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (40 page)

“Cara.” He pushed himself up and moved with his cane toward the door.

“Cara is dead.”

“You’ll get it.” He chuckled and left.

What the hell did he mean by any of those things? Did he know what a Dent was, know the procedure?

People change.

I had thought about that for a while. People changed.

She’d gone through so much since the day she first found Paegeia. She’d lost four people she cared about. People changed.

Then it hit me. I had no clue who this Elena was at all, just like she had no idea who I was.

I BARGED THROUGH  my bedroom door and Becky flinched. George was sitting with her on the couch.

“What happened?” Becky asked in a soft but worried tone.

I looked at George and took a few breaths.

“I think that is my cue to leave.” He bent over as he got up from the couch and kissed Becky on her lips and passed me. “Bye Elena.”

“Bye.” I felt bad that he always got up and left whenever I had to rant and rave about his best friend, once removed, and now back on.

“Let me guess.” Becky didn’t sound pleased. “It’s Blake related?”

“No,”

“That’s a first.”

I ignored her comment. “It’s Leo betraying me, related.”

“Leo?” she asked with a new tone in her voice. “What did he do, Elena?”

“It follows into a Blake related thing.”

She sighed. “What happened?” She tapped on the couch and I went over and sat down.

I just stared out in front of me and then stroked my face real hard and let out a growl, sort of.

“Leo wanted us to talk, make peace. I can’t.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed real loud. “Just try.”

I squinted. “Excuse me, am I the only one that remembers the hell that asshole put me through? What, explain it to me Becky, what did he do that made you forgive him just like that?” I snapped my fingers.

Her jaw muscles pumped slightly but no answer came from her mouth. “You don’t have to say anything. You know there is absolutely nothing, and then you think I’m gullible.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“He never cared for me, Becky. If he did he would’ve found me and brought me back, where I felt safe.” Tears lingered in my eyes.

She just looked at me, not saying anything, but worry laced her eyes. “You have no idea how it feels to see the guy that was the only one keeping you safe from his psychotic son, get killed in front of your eyes just because his son wanted me. When he died, I was hunted down like some animal.”

Her head snapped back at me. Tears started to well up.

“I tried to fight them off, but…” I shook my head. “Without my abilities, I could only do so much.”

I sniffed. “There was this one guy that I thought was on my side, he helped me to get away, but he was never on my side and took me to him. He betrayed me, and every time I look at Blake, I see him.” I shook my head again. Why I was telling her this, I didn’t know. But I needed her to stop fighting on Blake’s side and just see my point for once.

“You have no idea how it feels when six guys hold you down on the ground, taking their turn like you’re a feast…”

A tear rolled over her cheek.

“I had the worst dragon out there, that could’ve killed them if he’d just tried. He …” I shook my head, holding back my tears. Why I was even so emotional about this still was beyond me. I wiped away my tears.

“Elena.”

“No, don’t. I can’t forgive him and I thought that at least you would’ve understood that. But I guess Twilight Zone Blake has won you over too.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Whatever.” I got up and grabbed my jacket and left the room. I didn’t care what the idiot said while I was away. Actions spoke louder than words, and ever since I came back, he’d done nothing, absolutely nothing to make me think otherwise. He was still the same arrogant ass he always was, and would never ever change.

I FOUND GEORGE in my room playing PlayStation. “Where is Becky?”

“Elena came back from her session with Leo, something really upset her.”

“Yeah, I know. It was me, sorry.”

He chuckled but didn’t say anything.

I sat next to him and grabbed the other remote. Ever since I’d Dented, George had taken Lucian’s place and we had been roommates for almost five months now.

“Blake, you think she’s going to be okay?”

“I have to think that, I can’t give up,” I said as I let out a huge breath.

Just then an urgent knock came on the door and George got up. It was Becky. She was crying and flung herself into George’s arms.

“Shhhh, what happened?” he asked against her head and George gave me the eye. He was blaming me, as I’d put Elena in that mood and she’d taken it out on Becky. Still, Becky wasn’t the crying kind of girl, and that made me worry.

“Becky,” I asked. “Is Elena okay?”

She looked at me, sniffed and wiped her eyes. “No, she’s never going to forgive you Blake.”

“C’mon, don’t say that. She just needs time.”

“No, she doesn’t. She told me…” She took a deep breath.

“She told you what happened?” Both George and I just looked at her while she nodded her head and tried real hard to push back her tears. George hugged her tight.

“Becky what did she say?”

“I can’t Blake. It feels as if I’m betraying her every time I just listen, begging her to try and make peace with you. Let’s just say I understand why she doesn’t want to. If that was me, thinking that my dragon had tried nothing to save me, I would feel like that too. You should’ve told her.”

“Becky, she is never going to believe me, and you said it yourself, she thinks that you guys are on my side. She will never believe you now.”

“Then this is going to carry on for a very, very long time Blake. She might never forgive you.”

She was ready to turn around and leave.

“Becky please, just tell me what she said.”

She stopped took a huge breath and looked at me again. “She was hunted down like some animal. One of them was a psycho that killed his father, who had been protecting Elena. Another one she thought was her friend betrayed her and took her to him instead, which I assume was the place they took advantage of her.” More tears rolled down her cheek. “She tried to fight them Blake but she said without her abilities she didn’t stand a chance. They broke her, I saw it today for the first time, really saw that.” She was crying again and took a sniff. “The only thing that is going through her mind now, isn’t the fact that she thought you were dead, but where the hell you were. Why you didn’t save her and I couldn’t tell her because of that fucking stupid promise I made.” She wiped her eyes. “She said every time she looks at you, she sees this guy that betrayed her. Bummer, right?”

“Becky,” George said. “Blake almost died.”

“I know, but she doesn’t!” she yelled back.

“No, Becky is right. If I remind her of the one who did this, she will never forgive me. I think I know who she is talking about.”

“What do you mean you think?” Becky’s tone rose.

“Easy Becks,” George said and looked at me. I nodded and sat back down on the couch wiping my face just thinking about all of this. Trying to put myself in her shoes. I couldn’t.

“Blake is still connected with Elena in some way. When she dreams, it’s like he’s there, experiencing it with her.”

“What?”

I sighed.

“You know what they look like?”

“Not all of them, but I know what one really looks like. He sure seems the psycho type.”

She came to sit down and just stared at me. “Make her see, Blake, that you do care.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how.”

“Fight with her. Hold her down.”

My head snapped at her. “No! I will never put that type of fear into her again just because I want her to hear me out.”

“Becky.” George sounded shocked too.

“That’s not what I mean. I just want her to know the truth.”

“You think I don’t? You think I like being that ass she thought I was a couple of months ago? I don’t, Becky, but I have no choice at the moment.”

“Then let me talk to her.”

“No, she doesn’t trust you like that anymore.”

More tears welled up in her eyes.

“I have a month alone with her. I’ll think of something. She has to talk to me sometime, right?”

They all just looked at me. I knew Elena was stubborn but to not pretend I was there for four weeks…. she would speak to me eventually. “I’ll show her then that I will never put her in harm’s way, ever again.”

HEN I CAME back, Becky was sleeping. I should never have sprung that on her. Ever. Thinking it over again, I felt terrible

I took a bath, and didn’t want to close my eyes because I knew I would only see Seymour and Billy. The night Clive died seemed to be playing over and over in my mind a lot as well, especially when he’d seen James’ body broken like that.

How had Seymour found out about James and his dad? Clearly, I hadn’t played my role convincingly enough. Even if Leo had shown me that they were all evil, for someone to want me like that was too shallow of a reason for why the man who had protected me for almost three months needed to die.

I also couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t find this Wyvern city. I’d looked through almost every map in the library by now and I still couldn’t locate it.

It didn’t make any sense, and only confirmed my initial theory that they didn’t know what the Wyvern city names were, let alone where they were located.

Still, the biggest problem for me now was Blake. Now they were forcing me to go on a mission with him. Just the two of us, alone. It was going to be a long agonizing month, that I was sure of. What upset me still the most was the outcome of what everyone was expecting this trip would deliver. Me accepting Blake as my dragon again. That was never going to happen. I would never trust him, I would never feel safe with him.

I climbed out of the bath and into my bed. Sammy was still not in hers and the clock read seven o’clock.

I looked at Becky’s still body, breathing in a slow rhythmic pattern. I should’ve never told her. If she told George, he would tell Blake, which wasn’t all a bad thing as I wanted him to know that my revenge was coming.

I wanted him to know that I would never forgive him for not being there. Not that I thought he cared at all, but my friends sure did.

George would’ve never let anything like that happen to Becky, ever.

As I closed my eyes, sleep struggled to come. Thoughts and worries made me lie awake. I pretended to be asleep when Sammy eventually came in. I could feel her hand stroking my cheek softly and she planted a sweet kiss on my head. She didn’t say anything and I knew Becky had told her.

She climbed into bed a couple of minutes later and I listened to her fall asleep.

I must have dozed off because I woke with someone breathing in my face. At first I thought it was Becky, wanting to talk more, but when I opened my eyes it was Seymour.

Wake up, Elena, wake up,
I kept telling to myself.

“Hello, my beautiful bird,” he said and gave me that wicked smile. Then our window burst into tiny pieces. It happened so fast and the shrill, agonizing scream Seymour let out when the Rubicon tore him to pieces pulled me out of the nightmare.

I was breathing loudly and started to cry again.

“It was just a dream, Elena.” Becky was at my side and I could feel Sammy wrapping her arms around me too.

“I’m so sorry.” Becky’s voice broke. “For everything.”

I grabbed the arm that was awkwardly around my neck and cried softly again. I was never going to escape the nightmares, even if the Rubicon was changing them. I still didn’t know why I’d dreamt that. I wanted nothing to do with him. It wasn’t real, it would never be real.

“What woke you?” Sammy asked and this time Becky stared at her. Their roles had reversed.

“It was this psycho guy. I keep finding him next to my bed. It’s as if he is looking for me and it’s only a matter of time before he finds me.”

Becky’s face hardened. “Good, I want him to find you because I promise you, he will die a gruesome death.”

I hugged her again. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted but knowing that she was there, knowing that George would help – not that Becky needed it as she was vicious all on her own – made me feel slightly better about my fear of Seymour finding me.

I nodded and she tucked a strand of hair from my face behind my ear. “Nothing will ever hurt you ever again.”

I huffed. “I wish I could take you with on this trip.”

They both stared at me and then Sammy looked away. “I wish I could be there too. It’s so unfair,” Becky said and Sammy just looked at her. I hugged Becky again. She’d finally come back, she was on my side again.

I sniffed hard.

We decided that sleep was for the birds and watched reruns on T.V. The girls laughed at everything and later on, one character did something extremely funny and I laughed with them. It carried on like that the entire night until an interview with Blake addressing the public about our trip to Etan came on. It was one he did in his first week the campaign started, that they played over and over.

Ever since Master Longwei told us about that, he spoke through every single form of media, interviews, radio, newspapers, you name it, about us going on a trip to Etan.

The interviews always got cut short the minute they asked him how I was doing. He never replied, just turned around and walked away.

Becky switched off the T.V the minute he started to speak. “I think we should call it a night,” she said and we all went to bed.

He was never like this, and I sighed thinking what it was he went through after that kiss in my room. It definitely wasn’t the same thing George had experienced, that much I knew, and I was really glad for that too.

Still, I was glad that I had my friends back, well one, as Sammy would never see her brother as one of the bad guys, not now. Maybe not ever, but she was here and not disappearing like she had the past couple of weeks.

We had fun tonight and a part of me wished that every day could be like this.

THE NIGHT BEFORE our departure, Blake wasn’t in any of our classes. I figured he was either busy with other interviews, or he was preparing to find his orbs, whatever it was they could do.

Later, I was called in to Master Longwei’s office alone.

“Sit, Elena,” he said and smiled softly.

I sat and stared at him. “I’m sure you know by now that this mission is mixed with something else. Please, I’m begging you, when Blake feels that one of his orbs is close by, just be patient with him.”

“So what? I’ll be camping somewhere while he saunters off trying to find it?”

He squinted. “No, Elena. Under no circumstances should you be left alone. You have to stay close to him, you hear?”

I huffed. “I hope he gets that memo, Master Longwei. You know what he is like.”

“Oh, it’s not my memo, Elena. It’s his.”

Wait, what?

“And yes, I do know what he is like, Elena. It’s you who seem not to have got that memo, yet.”

I stared at him. He hadn’t changed, well not that much.

“I’m not one of your friends, so I’m not going to lie to you about certain things that happened and it’s not my duty to correct you either.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“Something that you are going to find out about soon enough, and when that happens, I hope that forgiving yourself is as easy as it is going to be to forgive him.”

“What?” I didn’t have to listen to this. “Do you have anything else you want to add before I leave?” I sounded rude.

“No, that is it,” he said and I left.

Now I was sitting on my bed, not knowing what Master Longwei meant by any of that. ‘
Forgive myself as easily as it was going to be to forgive Blake?’
Never in a million years.

The fact that he wanted me close to him whenever he was going to find one of his precious orbs was nerve-wracking. Dangerous scenes of flying with him and climbing mountains kept popping up in my mind. He was going to kill me on this mission, that much I was certain of.

I didn’t like Master Longwei’s choice of words either, the ones about my friends lying to me. About what exactly I didn’t know, although I had a feeling that it fell into the Blake category.

Could it be the reason why Becky had forgiven him so easily? How was I ever going to find out? Would Blake tell me? I was sure I would never believe him even if he did.

The door opened and Becky and Sammy entered in high spirits. They were talking about something that had happened at dinner. I didn’t go because I was not hungry.

“Hey, Chef sent this. He said that he refuses to take no for an answer and you have to get something in that stomach of yours before the big trek,” Sammy babbled and put down a plate of food covered with a silver lid.

I took off the lid and found Coq au vin – my absolute favorite!

I smiled. “Remind me to say thanks to him.”

“Oh you will. He’s preparing a breakfast just for you and Blake tomorrow, early before you leave.”

I wanted to grunt but Sammy loved her brother. They would seriously push him on top of me if they could.

“Then I’ll thank him tomorrow.”

It was silent for a while.

“So, you all packed?”

“Yeah.” I looked at my backpack. “I got a note saying that I should pack light.”

“You’ll need more clothes than that, Elena,” Sammy said as she got up from my bed and took my backpack. “You can borrow mine.” She went to her closet and took out the most beautiful traveling backpack I’d ever seen.

“When did you get that?”

“My dad bought it for me for that stupid camping trip.”

I knew the stupid camping trip she was referring to. It was the weekend that I’d freed Blake, the weekend that he kissed me. There was no denying that the kiss fell into the slightly perfect category, but it was that kiss and its consequences that had set the events of the past five odd months in motion and I doubted I would ever be able to get over what had happened to me a month ago.

Becky helped and we took all the clothes I owned and chose from there what to pack.

“Can I ask you girls something?”

They both looked at me as I folded one of my shirts to put in the bag.

“Shoot, what is it?”

“You guys have been honest with me, right?” I asked.

Becky squinted and looked at Sammy. “Honest about what, Elena? You need to be specific.”

“Blake-related.”

Sammy looked down immediately and put my trousers in the bag. I looked at Becky.

“Why are you asking this? Did someone say something?”