“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.
My eyes immediately saw Blake baking in the sun, still in his dragon form.
Professor Vladimir was laughing at something he said.
Something I didn’t catch.
George was the first to take off his shirt and I looked away as he pulled off his trousers. After the plop and tear sound, a Moon-Bolt stood majestically in the place of George, and he was busy making his way over to Blake.
It always reminded me of giant puppies whenever a pack of dragons hadn’t seen one another in a long time. George leaped for Blake and Blake pushed him back with a lazy paw, which was hilarious.
Becky just shook her head.
“Guess we will be finally having you up in the sky too,” Sammy said and smiled as she took off her robe and transformed.
A beautiful brass dragon stood in her place and she ran over to her brother and George with a couple of other dragons.
Being naked in front of others was the most natural thing for dragons. They were so free. Something I envied.
When we finally reached them I couldn’t help chuckling. “Seriously,” I looked at Blake. Tabitha’s Snow dragon was on the total opposite side, with Peter putting a saddle on her back.
I still felt bad, as if I was now the reason he didn’t want to be with her.
He shook his head as if it was his way of shrugging and he lowered it inches from mine.
I couldn’t help but smile at his mug. I touched one of his tendrils and admired it softly in my hands. Everything seemed to disappear around us and for a short while, as I admired all the colors that sparkled off the tendril in my hand, we were alone.
I don’t know how anybody could say he was ugly. He was really such a beautiful dragon.
He closed his beady eyes and a loud fast clucking noise I heard once on our trip came from his torso. It stopped after a few seconds when his eyes opened.
“What the hell was that?” Becky asked and stopped for a second, putting her saddle on George’s back.
George laughed. “I’m so glad I’m not the only idiot doing that anymore.”
“Shut up.” His huge paw pushed George again, and he fell over, away from Becky.
“Okay,” Becky said and stepped away. “Let me know when you two are done.” She looked at Blake and George.
“Sorry, Becks. I’m done,” George said as he rolled back onto his stomach for her to put her saddle on his back.
Oh hell, I didn’t have a saddle for him at all. “How are we going to do this?”
“Easy, I’ll stay a dragon till it sinks in.”
I laughed. “Not that, Blake. Flying.”
“Oh,” he gurgled. “Just trust me.”
I HAD TO admit I was so scared because there was absolutely nothing to hold me in place on Blake’s back. No saddle, just bare back with plenty of horns and scales. I climbed on via his wing, the same way I had with Cheng, but it was not as easy because he was twice Cheng’s size and I kept sliding off.
“Elena, is it going to be today!” Becky yelled in a teasing tone and the entire class laughed.
“A little help, please.” I begged as I clung like a monkey on his wing and couldn’t find a way further up his back. Blake flipped his wing up gently, which made me fly into the air and come crashing down on his back.
“Thanks for that graceful landing.” I sounded sarcastic.
His entire body shook, a tremble of sorts as I pushed myself onto my feet and climbed to the first horn on his back, nearest his neck.
The feeling was overpowering. No one other than Lucian had ever taken a ride with Blake. And here I was, the girl that didn’t even know dragons existed, on the back of the most powerful dragon in the entire world.
I stationed myself in front of the huge horn, grabbed two of the long tendrils that covered his neck, and smiled as I remembered the way he’d held mine tight in his hand when I’d given him a dragon ride a couple of months back when Cara was still with me.
“Ouch,” he said. “That is actually attached to me.”
?
??See it as a bit of payback.”
“Payback? You really want to go there?”
“Okay, don’t see it as payback.” I loosened my grip. “How is this?”
“Much better, you ready?”
“No, but then again I might never be.”
“C’mon Elena, you are past the heights thing.”
“It’s not the heights that I’m afraid of this time, it’s the falling off.”
“What, no faith in me? That’s not a good way to start off your first riding lesson, Princess.”
Professor Vladimir, who was already stationed on Professor Alexandra, gave the class the order and one by one they ran a couple of steps and took off.
I took a deep breath and put my flying goggles over my eyes.
We were the last to leave and I laughed again as Becky and George lifted off after a short run. She whooped loudly and I could tell she was made for the sky. She should’ve been a dragon.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, and he didn’t run at all, he just flapped his wings gracefully and we reached the sky in four flaps.
The class was a couple of miles in front of us and I laughed as Blake went higher and higher.
“We are losing them.”
“See if I care. You don’t need these stupid classes, Elena.” And we carried on flapping through clouds. I looked back down and could hardly see the outline of the coliseum.
He stopped flapping and dove.
I shrieked from excitement as he darted forward fast, back down again. The coliseum and everything came back instantly as the clouds disappeared and adrenaline pumped through my veins as it came nearer and nearer. Then he changed his direction just as we were about to collide with the ground.
His paws took a short run and he darted back up.
It was like I was Cara. I was finally free, and it was something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. I didn’t want this feeling to end.
The only thing I didn’t like much was not having a saddle under me, but the wind blowing through my hair and brushing against my skin made up for it.
We were disappearing into the clouds again. The class was gone and I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.