Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (66 page)

We just stared at one another and then she opened her arms. I ran to her, not fast enough. It was as if everything in this universe had tried to not make this reunion possible. When I finally connected hard with her body, she had to step slightly back to keep her balance.

She was as tall as me and her arms felt so motherly. They hugged me so tightly that I felt immediately the love she’d had for me. They felt so familiar, arms I’d only felt for a short time when I was so little.

She kissed me all over my face and hugged me again. “You are all grown up,” she whispered and sniffed. Her face was inches from mine. “I love you so much, and I will never ever stop loving you. I really wanted you and I’m so sorry that we never got to share anything. I really looked forward to our shopping sprees.”

“Oh and could she shop,” my father joked with tears glistening in his eyes.

“Shush,” she slapped my father and I laughed.

“But I promise you, you will have an amazing life, Elena.” She tugged my hair behind my ear. “One that will be filled with love, and memories. Your destiny is written in the stars and one day, one day, we’ll go on that shopping spree.”

I hugged her again. And she kissed me on my head one more time. “I love you, Baby.”

“Please don’t go,” my voice broke.

“If it was possible sweet, sweet girl, I would stay, but I can’t. I’m no longer a part of this world. But you have a great mother now, she’ll look after you.”

I nodded. I wanted to say I wanted her, not Constance, but I loved Constance too.
How does one choose?

She wiped my tears while hers were still lying thick in her eyes.

“I’ll always be with you. I promise.” She kissed me one more time on my temple and started to retreat.

I didn’t want her to go but our hands left one another, and my shoulders shook when she moved back into the water.

My father hugged me, comforted me as I was forced to look at her retreating figure.

“I love you, Catherine Squires,” my father said. “Always have always will.”

She laughed. “Don’t be so forward. Your new bride might get jealous.”

I heard Constance’s laughter from the shore. She didn’t say anything.

And then she was gone.

“I’m so sorry Elena. Believe me, if I’d known it was Goran I would’ve done something. I swear to you.” A stray tear rolled over my father’s cheek.

“Shhh,” I sniffed. “It’s in the past, Dad.” We couldn’t change it, but at least I’d gotten a chance to have met her and not through a stupid device. This time it was for real.

One by one the orbs started to make a whizzing sound and shoot into the air. We all stared at them as they exploded one after another into the sky. First red, then pink, orange, yellow, blue. All of them exploded in a stream of colors, and died out with tiny colorful sparkles that fell from the sky. It was the meanest and most amazing fireworks display I’d ever seen.

We watched until the last one shot through the air and engulfed the night sky with its purple light. I’d had that orb in my hands once. It was one of them that Blake had had to dig out with his talons. I looked back at Blake who kissed the last one in his hands, as if he were parting with a great treasure. He threw it up into the air as hard as he could and a bright light filled the night sky, no explosion, and they were gone.

He’d used them all for me, so I could say goodbye to the people I couldn’t, and meet the one person I really wanted to meet. My mom.

I ran over to him and jumped into his arms.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice raspy.

“Shhhh,” he said against my ear. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more time.”

“Thank you Blake,” my father interrupted us and he put me down. “I can’t thank you enough. I know what they must have meant to you.”

“They mean nothing compare to what your daughter means to me.”

“Please,” my father shook his head, his tone quite serious. “Don’t ask me for my blessing, not yet.”

We all laughed.

“Too soon?” Blake joked.

“Way, way too soon.”

We went back to the wedding. I couldn’t get my mother out of my head. She was real, she was there and I had to let her go again, just like that.

“Fly with me?” Blake asked. I nodded.

He took my hand and led me outside where he started to strip down and change.

I didn’t look away this time. He was right, I had to get used to his nakedness and he just smiled when he found me staring at him.

“It’s about time,” he joked and transformed.

The Rubicon, as hulking as ever, stood in his place and I climbed onto his back with his assistance.

When my hands touched his neck sprouts I twirled them softly around my hands. I’d never thought that I would feel so safe on top of his back. But it was now the most natural place for me to be. His colossal wings started to flap and we ascended into the sky.

The wind against my face made me feel free again.

I was finally at peace, and he’d given that final peace to me.

My mom was happy wherever she was and Herbert knew how sorry I was for making everything so hard on him. And Cara, she was beautiful, just as I’d imagined she would if I wasn’t her human form.

My heart was at peace and he was responsible for that.

He spoke and I gasped softly.

He was reciting poems off the top of his head, of tonight’s scenery, the way he felt, the way I made him feel

It wasn’t his dragon’s voice and I knew what that meant.

I could hear him and I closed my eyes just getting lost in his head. How he saw the beauty of this flight.

He descended and we landed on the clearing.

It was a place Becky and George had told me about, a place in Etan, but I’d never gone. I would’ve just ended up missing him more, and I struggled with it back then. The place was stunning, something that one only saw in a picture of a fantasy world.

The moon was reflecting on a small river, and the meadow lit up with fireflies, or they could be fairies. The words Blake used to describe this in his head were so beautiful, I could understand why Professor Pheizer had tears in her eyes that day when I’d told her what the voice in my head said.

He transformed again and came to stand behind me with his arms wrapped around me.

His body was so warm, heat radiated from it, just like a blanket.

“I’m sorry that I took so long,” he said.

“It’s fine. You had to find them, just promise me next time you have to do something like that again, I can fit in your bag.”

He chuckled. “I’ve promised this way too many times, Elena, but this time, you have my oath.”

I smiled. I knew that he would never leave me to go do something like that ever again. He’d swore it with his entire being that he would take me with him.

It was quiet as we just stood there and watched the million fireflies around us.

“That poem was beautiful.”

“I know, you told me that before.”

“Not the one you turned into a song Blake, the one you spoke when we came here.”

He was quiet for a few seconds. “You heard that?”

I nodded. “I heard it when we were separated in the castle too, when Goran was pretending to be Helmut. I couldn’t see you, and I was so scared. I really thought Helmut wanted to kill me, and then your voice roared that it was Goran.”

“He didn’t want you to find out that he was his twin.”

I turned around in his arms to look at him. “I know that now.”

He smiled softly but it disappeared.

“Why the long face?” I asked.

“It’s not a two way stream, Elena. I can’t hear yours.”

“Guess it’s a bit of payback,” I said and he smiled. “It will come back, Blake. That I know.”

He smiled and took a deep breath. I knew that breath. He had to be patient. “Well, if you can see my thoughts, maybe now I can show you something.”

I squinted. “What on earth would that be?” I joked.

He grinned. “Shhh.”

I closed my eyes and found myself in the same white room I had that day underneath the tree.

I started to laugh. “You want to show me the Dent again?”

A picture of my face filled my mind as the white room disappeared. I opened my eyes and saw a slight frown between his eyes.

“What do you mean by again?”

“You already showed me that.”

“No, I would’ve remembered if I had.” He had a sheepish, yet confused smile on his face.

I laughed, but it disappeared. It had to be real. “That day in the forest. I thought you were going to say goodbye to me. It looked as if you were hiding something.”

He squinted.

“I even told you that it didn’t make sense. That if you were there.” He put his finger on my mouth this time and closed his eyes. Images of that dream flew into his mind.

“Yes, that.”

That was you
?

“Who else would it have been?”

He showed me something else. That it was him or he’d thought it was him imagining that. I saw the picture of me lying on a bed, with a machine breathing for me. The emotion with that was hard to explain, it was tormenting, it made it hard to breath. He was lying next to me as day and night kept moving fast.

“I don’t understand.”

I did that so many times in that first month, wanting to connect with you, to bring you back. I needed to hear your voice, even if it was my own doing. I didn’t care
.

An image of that day and that kiss I’d given him, it had felt real to him, so strong. He should’ve known that it was real. He’d left that day.

I just looked at him, “You really tried that more than once?”

“Every time I possibly could,” he spoke out loud.

I closed my eyes and our lips touched again. I could kiss him forever. It became harder and faster.

He grunted as a promise, flashes really flew through his mind, and broke our kiss.

“What was that?” I laughed.

“I can’t,” he smiled. “I made a promise to keep my hormones at bay until our wedding day.”

We both laughed as he spoke in rhyme again.

“And your father just told me that it is too soon, so it’s going to be hard for me but I want to try, Elena.”

“Who did you promise?” He hid his thoughts from me as I didn’t get it. He was so good at everything. A master.

“Your mother.”

I squinted. I was there and he hadn’t promised her anything like that.

“When?”

He stared at me and looked at me with so much love. Flashes of another place entered his mind. It was so beautiful, so bright, and Lucian’s face flashed fast through his mind. He tried to hide it but I saw Lucian’s face.

“When I used half the orbs’ powers to go talk to him.”

“To who?”
Lucian?

“Lucian. I thought he had you, Elena.”

I stared at him. Lucian was dead, and then I got what he was saying. “You called Lucian the way you called my mom?”

He chuckled again and shook his head. “No, he didn’t want to speak to me, which only confirmed my fears, so I had to take a trip to go beat his ass.” His grin still stayed on his lips.

More flashes of this serene place went through his mind. I saw Helmut and Queen Marguerite too with an unknown girl. Goosebumps broke over my skin. “You were on the other side?” My voice broke.

He nodded. “Time works differently that side. I struggled to track him down and promised that if I found him with you, I was going to scorch him, didn’t matter how saintly he was, until he gave you up. When I finally found him, had was surrounded by girls.” He smiled. “He told me that it wasn’t the reason he didn’t want to speak to me. He wanted peace. He said that you were not there, and that was how I met your mother. She’s a lot like you, Elena. When she discovered who I was, she scared the living crap out of me.”

“You told her that you didn’t treat me like crap anymore, right?”

He chuckled. “Not about that, Elena. About taking advantage of you. She’s very traditional and didn’t want you doing things with me you were not supposed to be doing until your wedding night.”

I laughed just watching his image of her pushing him against the tree. She was scary. “You didn’t mention...”

“Hell, no,” he whispered and we both laughed softly.

Our eyes met again and he looked at me. Really looked at me, as if he could see straight into my heart. I hated that look. He made me feel everything at once with that look. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more time. It turns out I still needed to learn how to be patient too.”

“Shhh, I have that same problem.”

“And now I just went and made it even worse.”

I hugged him again. “We’ll see it as a learning experience.”

I buried my face deep in his shoulder and just breathed in his Essence.