I yelled and everyone cheered with glasses in their hands. I mimicked them and drank a shot of something that was offered to me. I knew I made a speech too, but what I said, I had no idea, and there was definitely another kiss with Xavier and more flashing lights.
When I wanted to dance to another song that started to play, a pair of arms grabbed my legs, and forced me off the table and I fell over his shoulder.
“Party pooper!” I yelled.
“Shut the fuck up. You have no idea what tomorrow is going to do to you.”
“Oh, as if you seriously give a shit, Blake. What are you doing here anyway?” There was a song and laughter in my voice.
“Jimmy phoned, okay. He was worried and begged me to take you back to the manor.”
He was climbing down the stairs. Flashes were still going off, people were shouting questions, and I could hear one breaking with Blake grunting in their direction.
He was so weird, completely unreadable.
I’d never felt so drunk my entire life, everything spun and being carried away over Blake’s shoulder made it even worse.
I started to laugh as I tickled his sides. He didn’t even flinch.
“You are not ticklish.” I lifted my body up and looked over my shoulder but only saw the back of his head.
“No, I’m not,” he replied in a serious tone and I pulled my face and mimicked his seriousness softly which made me laugh again.
Voices yelled with more flashing lights and for some reason the footsteps of people running. He grunted, transformed and flew with me. He carried me on his paw instead of his back. Which I was grateful for as I would’ve just fallen off.
I started to sing, which was very annoying but for some reason it was such a hilarious song at that moment.
He growled slightly, which was good as I had to get him back for all those times he’d annoyed me in my head.
I sang louder which made him fly faster and then he just opened his paw.
I yelled for two seconds and then my body connected with ice cold water. I came up and gasped for air. I found my way to the edge. My clothes were soaking wet and my mind was clear as if I hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol that night.
I coughed uncontrollably, and found him lying next to the pool in their back yard, playing with his talons. Tears glistened in my eyes. He was so cruel. To take me away when I was having fun just so he could trample on me again. I couldn’t do this anymore.
“You are such an asshole Blake,” I called from the water and splashed him with a lot of it. He shook his head vigorously and the long tendrils that came out of his ugly mug flew in all directions. “Yeah not so nice, is it?”
I climbed out. My clothes clung on my body. “You have no idea what I had to go through today.” I sounded so defeated, and wring out my hair. “Sorry, I forgot.” The corners of my lips curled slightly, barely labeled as a smile. More traitorous tears glistened in my eyes. “Why would you want to know about anything that I’m going through?”
I just stared at him and for the first time, he was actually listening.
I broke the stare and my eyes fell to the ground as more tears started to well up. I couldn’t believe I was going to do this. But no more.
I smiled for real this time. It was soft and I took a huge breath. He won’t see my tears. “I tried everything, Blake. Everything, but nothing I do seems to be the right thing, so you win.” I looked at him one last time. I smiled again. “You’re free. I’m releasing you from all the things you rebelled against. Sorry that it took so long. From this moment on…I have no dragon.”
I swallowed hard as he just stared at me with his beady eyes, saying nothing, he didn’t even smile.
I walked to the wall. My room was two stories up, and I called on the vines that covered the manor. The only time I was magical was when he was in his dragon form. It was the only time I had access to my abilities.
The vines became alive, running up the wall, and the top bent over and came toward me. I grabbed the end and it twirled around my arms and pulled me to the entrance of my room. I stepped on the balcony and rushed to my door. Water dripped from my body and the cold breeze was making me shiver. I unlocked my door with my gift of telekinesis and shut it as loud as I could.
I let out a scream filled with frustration.
He’d said nothing. Not a thank you, nothing. Even now that I’d let him go, he was still such an ungrateful son of a bitch.
I was finally free from him. I guessed his hatred for me finally sunk in tonight. I pulled off my shirt and walked to the closet and grabbed the nearest T-shirt. After I unhooked my bra, I pulled it over my body. It fell over my bum and I pulled down my wet skirt and took off my soaking boots. I exchanged my wet panties for a dry pair and when I was all dried up, a tear rolled over my cheek.
Why does this hurt so much? I always knew that he didn’t want me to be his rider, even though he still needed me to become good again, he’d rather be evil and take the horrible beatings. While I still felt them, well not as much as the first time, but I knew every time he would go through it.
Maybe now that I’d let him go, they would stop hurting me too. Just maybe the connection was finally broken.
I didn’t want to cry, not over this. Freeing him was the only thing I could do. I sighed and struggled to hold back my tears, but I somehow managed and took a huge breath to calm my anger.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my wrist and it forced my entire body to spin around. I only got a glimpse of Blake wearing boxer shorts and a bare chest before I felt his lips hard against mine.
What the hell was he doing?
My mind roared as he pushed me tighter against him. His lips tasted salty and warm; I didn’t want this. I didn’t want him, but he kept holding me tightly against his body, forcing his tongue into my mouth.
I tried again to push him away, turn my head away, but at that moment his hand behind my head forced me more deeply into his kiss.
Then I bit him. If he wasn’t going to stop, I would bite his lips until he stopped. He didn’t even flinch, probably got turned on more.
I didn’t give up though and hit his chest with my fists but I only got in three punches and then … I succumbed.
I returned his kiss and our tongues played together, like they were meant to for the past three hundred years.
The kiss was hard, fast, crazy, wild and it was everything I ever wanted.
My hands tangled up in his hair. He smelled amazing, like roasted wild flowers with a hint of musk and burnt oak.
His hand slid down my hips, still hard and vigorous and my feet lifted off the ground as he picked me up, and twirled my legs around his waist. My back hit the wall hard, but I didn’t want to stop, I wanted this and I didn’t want this, it was a weird feeling that I couldn’t explain, but I couldn’t stop kissing him and I wanted more.
I groaned as his mouth left mine and went to my neck. His tongue was warm and his kisses were mixed with soft sucking. My eyes closed and I couldn’t open them as goose bumps flushed over my entire body. It felt amazing and another soft groan left my mouth. My mouth found his huge shoulder and my teeth scraped his skin softly. My mind was a daze of thoughts, thoughts that weren’t my own but I couldn’t make any sense of it.
Then he stopped, as if he was under a spell and had only just woken up from it. His breathing was fast in my ear and then he let out a grunt. He stepped away from me, his hands leaving my body as his entire body hunched, still grunting.
Anger rushed over me and I bit down on my lip. He was really so cruel.
“It never happened for all I care. Get out of my room,” I yelled with angry tears glistening inside my eyes. “I hate you.”
He lifted up his hand in defense. “It’s…not…that.” He spoke through more grunting noises. “Something is wrong.”
My entire body felt as if I had been chucked inside a pool again. “What do you mean?” It barely came out
Blood poured out of his nose and he wiped it away, I
couldn’t help staring at the blood on his hand. My heart was beating fast. Then more blood started running from the corners of his eyes.
I shrieked. “Blake, what’s happening?”
He fell to the floor as more blood ran down his ears. It soaked my lush cream carpet and a jolt of shock and disbelief rushed through my body. I fell down right next to him. He gurgled something as blood poured from his mouth, and then he let out a breath. He didn’t inhale again as his eyes closed. My hand went to his neckline to feel for a pulse: nothing. My head lay on his chest. No heartbeat.
“Wake up,” I said and slapped his cheek a couple of times. No response.
My upper body jolted up straight, my hands were tangled in my messy, wet hair and they were shaking. I didn’t know any CPR, but I’d seen how it was done, and tried. Anything. His heart needed to beat, but nothing happened. Every time my lips touched his, I could taste his blood, but I didn’t care. I needed him to breathe.
I kept pressing hard on his chest as Arianna’s words that day in the cafeteria after Lucian’s death played in the back of my head.
I was like poison.
Tears rolled over my face, and I put my head to his chest once more.
No, this cannot be.
I gave up and just sat against his lifeless body on the ground with my back against the bed.
No, no, no! I’d killed Blake.
Not able to control any of my thoughts anymore, my body acted all by itself. I was in front of my closet, grabbing clothes and chucking them into a bag. Then I pulled on a pair of jeans and stepped into my sneakers. A blazer made its way around my body too, and I pulled the hoody over my head as I slung the bag over my shoulder. The actions didn’t go with the sobbing that was escaping my lips.
I looked at Blake’s lifeless body. I felt one last time for a pulse and found nothing. An agonizing scream left my body. I’d killed the Rubicon. The Council was going to take it out on me for sure, they never cared that I was from royal blood and they were waiting for me to screw up. This, this was a major screw up.
I phoned Sammy, nothing, tried Becky, the same thing. Even Isabel, Sir Robert and Constance. They all ignored my calls.
I felt so helpless.
I’d promised myself I would never run again, but running was all I knew. I’d grown up with it. I couldn’t stay.
The thought made me grab my soft blanket that was folded nicely over my bed and I put it over Blake. I kissed him one last time on his bloody lips, and covered his face and then I ran as fast as I could, down the stairs.
I had no idea where I was going, the end of the street corner came faster than I thought it would, then the end of another street corner, it carried on and on until I had no idea where I was. I was crying so much, just thinking about killing the only dragon, the only being, according to Lucian, that would love me like nobody else would. I’d killed him. He wasn’t anymore.
It had started to rain. When, I didn’t know. I just felt the clothes clinging to my skin as more rain poured from the sky. It made everything in front of me hazy, and I struggled to see.
Still, it didn’t stop me from moving on. My mind couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss, the last thing he’d ever done, just when I was ready to let him go. It then shifted to the blood, so much blood, flashes of beatings, of the Council and what they would do to me, all the horror that awaited me for being executed for killing the Rubicon flashed through my mind, until I couldn’t think of anything anymore.
The last thing I remembered was finding the woods. It changed into something that wasn’t real. I started seeing visions of a tunnel, me running through it. Arms, plenty of arms coming out of the wall, grabbing at me, but they didn’t catch me, I heard people hissing but saw none. My heart pounded so fast, and my legs moved as if they knew my life depended on it.
The feeling was hard to describe, as if that kiss and that cold water of the swimming pool hadn’t sobered me up after all. It felt as if I was in a trance and everything was too much again.
I let out a scream, forcing myself not to go back there, to feel that trapped again in my own life.
The scream worked and everything stopped. It was black as night, the darkness of my mind consumed my entire body…
I OPENED MY eyes and found plenty of trees, and globes of small lights like little fairies floating around. Faint purple flowers were in between the trees, but they were moving past me.
My mind was still numb. I killed Blake.
The thought rushed through my mind like a broken record. I didn’t think about anything else.
They closed again as they were heavy.
I couldn’t remember when I’d ever felt this tired.
FATIGUE LIKE I’d never felt before washed over my body, and then my eyes finally opened again.
My body felt stiff and for a split second, everything was peaceful, until the memory of my entire life and everything that I was, jolted through my being. I’d killed Blake… with a kiss.
I wished that I could keep my eyes closed and just will myself to die, to make this constant loss, heartache and fighting disappear, but my will to live and to find the silver lining around this devastating cloud in me was stronger.
I was lying on top of a very hard bed and when I finally opened my eyes the walls and smell that surrounded me reminded me of a barn.
It was dark and I could barely make out the outlines of the objects around me. They appeared to be large piles of hay cubes. Yes, I was sure of it now, I was lying on a manmade hay bed, inside a barn.
Deep down inside of me, I knew I wasn’t going to get away with this. Someone had to have phoned the authorities by now and told them where I was, but then again, if that was true what was I still doing in a barn? If they knew that I was the Princess of Paegeia, then why was my hair covered in hay? I would’ve been in some hotel, even a cheap one, unless…unless they really were going to punish me and this was just the start.
A horse neighed and I jumped slightly.
“Shhhh,” someone’s voice from another stall said quietly and the horse calmed down.
I waited in silence.
“Hello,” I finally said and in a few seconds a boy, more or less my age, appeared in the doorway of my stall.
“Hi,” he said. His posture was quite the opposite of what I expected. It was as if he didn’t want to scare me away and he didn’t act as hostile as I thought he would’ve been.
He wore an old, dirty patched-up pair of jeans with a flannel shirt. His clothes didn’t quite fit this era. His hair was light, extremely messy and he was sort of dirty, but he had the most beautiful smile. It was a smile that made me long for Lucian all over again.
“Name is August, what’s yours?”
“Like the month?”
He smiled again. “Yes, September and June were taken.”
I giggled slightly. He had a good sense of humor. “Where am I?”
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head.
“My granddad found you a couple of miles from the creepers. You have a death wish or something?”
The creepers? I didn’t say it out loud, but I was wondering why I’d gotten so near to them. I mean, I’d seen them once on the TV in Lucille’s living room and they’d scared me to death the way they’d snatched at the scientists and torn them apart.
“How long have I been sleeping?”
“About two days. What’s your name?”
I squinted. He doesn’t know who I am?
“E…” I started.
“Like the letter?”
I smiled and shook my head. Lie, Elena. It could be a new start, away from the Council and dragons, away from Sammy and Becky. Arianna had been right and if I was poisonous I had to keep my two best friends safe. “Eleanor, but everyone calls me Elle.”
“Elle, a different letter.”
I giggled again. “Yeah, not as glamorous as a month I guess.”
He laughed softly and it fell quiet. “So, what is your story?”
I sighed and thought about lying more but nothing was coming. “I have no story. Believe me, it’s nothing glamorous or anything, it’s just bad.”
“Nothing new about that. We’ve all had bad lives, Elle.”
I looked at him. What did he mean by they’ve all had bad lives?
“But if you really don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay.”
“Thanks. I really just want to forget…or try to forget.”
“You from Boliva?”
I squinted again. Boliva? What was this strange boy talking about?
I shook my head again. “From nowhere.”
“Nowhere?” He looked up to the ceiling, if you could call it one. “Nope haven’t heard of that place before,” he joked again. “But if you say you are from nowhere, then I guess the only thing that’s still in order is to say welcome to Alkadeen.”
“Alkadeen.”
He smiled again. “I doubt my father would send you back to wherever you came from. It’s illegal to take someone in, as per our agreement.” He raised his eyes and pulled his face sarcastically with a mimicking tone as he said that last part. “They have broken many of the agreements already so you are safe and the best form of free.”
I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of anything he’d just said. It was as if I’d stepped into the twilight zone and jumped back in time or something. But if it’s freedom he offered then I wasn’t going to argue. I took a deep breath and let it out again.
“Thank you.” I made it sound sincere and as grateful as I could.
My stomach grumbled and he chuckled.
“Come, milk is on in the house.”
He gestured with his hand for me to follow him and I got up from the bed of hay, which was a mission in itself.
My body felt stiff as I got onto my feet and I had to wait a second or two to stretch before I took that first step in his direction.
I found him with a match in his hand and a lantern in front of him. It was something I should’ve been used to but it reminded me of home, the other side of the wall where magic didn’t exist.
The lantern caught light and I saw his face; he smiled again as he picked up the lantern and walked into another stall. I walked faster and found him standing next to a huge cow.