I closed my eyes and smiled.
“What is it?” Blake asked.
“I’m not crazy. It’s on here,” I said and pointed at Eikenborough and Alkadeen.
Blake squinted at my finger and so did David. They both looked up.
“Are you sure that was where you were?” Blake asked as David had a look of pure shock on his face.
I nodded. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Eikenborough?” Blake asked.
“Yes, you heard of it?”
“You were in Eikenborough?” David asked too.
“Yes, and in Alkadeen. The farms are in Alkadeen.” What was wrong with them?
“Elena, Eikenborough used to be part of Etan.”
“And?” I didn’t understand a thing he was saying.
Blake shook his head. “You don’t understand, it’s still a part of Etan.”
T CAN’T BE. It’s right there.” I looked down at the map. “It’s there, in the Wyvern city.”
“Elena, it’s not the Wyvern city, it’s Etan.” Blake asked David for a new map.
He rolled it open.
Eikenborough disappeared again.
“The new maps were all printed without Etan and all its cities. Here.” He showed the black border right above the map. “These are the Creepers, Elena or where they start. You were in Etan.”
I shook my head. “It’s not possible, I would’ve remembered if I…” I trailed off trying to remember both times I’d supposedly passed through the Creepers.
The one night was when I thought I’d killed Blake. It was so fuzzy. The other night was the time in the forest when I’d killed the others.
I was in Etan. I slammed down into the chair and leaned my face into my hands. It all made sense now, why they feared the Dragonian sign, why dragons didn’t want to transform, people losing hope. I had been in Etan. So close to my father and I didn’t even know it.
“You were in Etan,” Blake stated. He sounded relieved. Why I didn’t know. “I need to phone Master Longwei,” he said and left.
“How could this be?” I asked.
“You don’t remember going past the Creepers?” David wanted to know.
I shook my head. Then I remembered the noise. When we came here, I had a memory of the same buzzing, it was like a hissing, could it have been that?
David didn’t ask any more questions and we both just sat there thinking.
The past two months I’d searched every single Wyvern city to find Eikenborough and I just couldn’t.
At a stage I thought that maybe I had made it all up, but tonight it was there.
I knew Blake knew something as he’d just blurted out again about the maps. He knew I was searching and he wanted to help.
Then he’d just had to ask for an older map…
A part of him annoyed me so much, but after that kiss… I didn’t know what to do with him anymore.
He certainly was different. Still arrogant as hell, but he drove me insane and it was making me fall for him again. Something I didn’t want because I knew it was a spell.
He’d never wanted this.
“Is this true?” Connie came into the library. “You were in Etan?” she asked before she reached the table.
“Apparently.”
“I thought Eikenborough was lost?” David asked. “You know of the city before Eikenborough, Dichinell?”
I shook my head. “I never explored as I was too scared.”
Connie rubbed her husband’s shoulder.
David had tears in his eyes. I understood, he had family in Dichinell, I should’ve thought before I opened my mouth.
“He had a rider that lived in Dichinell. They shared a bond.”
“You are a dragon?”
David smiled and nodded. “I’m a Swallow Annex. Healing is my game.” He tried to make it come out as a joke, but he failed miserably.
“I’m so sorry to hear that, what was his name?”
“Charles,” Connie said with tears lingering in her eyes too.
Charles, he had a Swallow Annex because he still had his ability, but he lived in Alkadeen. It couldn’t be, could it?
“Are you speaking about Charles Benson?”
Both heads shot up and David wiped tears out of his eyes.
“You know him?”
I nodded. “But he doesn’t live in this place you mentioned. He lives on a farm in Alkadeen.”
David started to laugh, a good laugh. “He went, I thought he was waiting for that seal, you remember the seal he wanted to give to young Marcus?”
“I know Marcus too. And August, all of them. I lived with them for a month.”
I couldn’t stop talking. “August was born with the mark too. He can manipulate chlorine.”
“He’s a Green-Vapor’s rider?”
I nodded. I couldn’t explain this new feeling that erupted into my stomach but it was warm and so good. Telling someone that their family was alive was addictive. A laugh of pure happiness escaped my lips and we started speaking about Charles’s entire family.
I touched David’s hand. “He talked about you when they discovered I was born with the mark too. It’s not a good thing that side. They kill them if they discover they have the mark.”
“Kill them?”
I lifted up my sleeve that carried my barcode and showed it to them. “They brand everyone with this.”
Both their eyes locked on my barcode. “I lied and said that my dragon was killed and that he’d protected me all this time.” I shook my head. “It was a stupid lie, they didn’t know I lied. If I asked more questions I would’ve known I was in Etan.”
“Shhhh, it doesn’t matter Elena. You were there, and you collected valuable information in that four months. Information that we never would’ve had. It’s a good thing.”
“Then why do I feel so crappy all of a sudden?”
“You didn’t know. You protected yourself from the truth. If they knew that you were the key to enter and exit Etan… Elena, you saved lives by keeping it from them. I cannot imagine if the wrong people discovered the truth about you.”
That was why none of them knew who I was. A new fear overpowered me. If Goran found out...
“Did you see Goran?” David asked.
“No, I think they call him the Wyvern King now.”
Both David and Connie looked at each other.
“That is not good, is it?”
“Goran could always understand Wyvic, he was born with it. He’s also a powerful sorcerer, Elena. If anyone could find a way to tame the Wyverns, it’s him.”
I swallowed hard. There was going to be a war. One between Wyverns and dragons.
I didn’t like this.
“We need to get word to King Helmut, get more people here. We have to free the ones that don’t belong there.” I looked at both of them. “I’m so sorry for doing this to your beautiful place.
“Don’t, a part of us always knew this day would come. It’s a good day, Elena,” Connie said and she got up.
David cried again. He was just so happy.
“It all makes sense now.”
“What does?” I smiled.
“Why he flew so close to the Creepers each and every time. It wasn’t suicide. Deep inside he knew you were there.”
I squinted. All those times, what was he talking about?
“Sorry, it has nothing to do with me. I need to go and see if I can assist Connie.”
I went back to my room and sat on the bed. I needed to be alone so I wielded my shield and all the buzzing outside disappeared. It was so quiet.
Something David said laid heavy on my mind. All those times.
How had the old man known that the Rubicon had looked for me?
I knew Constance said he tried, but how did David know?
I grabbed my Sonic device, glad that Sammy had put it in to kill time on this boring trip that they’d forced me on.
I plugged the small gel orbs on both sides of my temple an
d connected the plugs into the Sonic.
I took a deep breath as I hadn’t done it before without help from the scientists, and let it out slowly. My heart started to stammer as I spoke the words: Blake Leaf.
Immediately it showed a list of things about him.
The times he’d messed up, was drunk in public. The destruction of the City Hall in Tith that night.
I scrolled down. There was nothing on the first page about him searching for me.
I hit the next page and more topics popped up.
Then I saw it.
The Rubicon’s near death experience.
I hit it. It must have been when he’d kissed me that night, it had to be that night. I wanted to stop when everything around me vanished and I found myself inside the park.
It wasn’t my room or the night I left everything behind, the night I thought I’d killed him.
A woman stood a couple of paces from me. She was filming the beauty of the park, it was the park in Tith. Lucian and I met one another many times there. The same park Pappi and I’d shared ice cream and talked about so many things.
A couple of kids were playing on the jungle gym, and an ice cream cart’s bell rang.
I was ready to exit as this was clearly the wrong topic, and not what I thought it was, when the woman gasped.
I stopped and she pointed her camera to the sky.
Her husband and everyone around them looked up and so did I.
“What is that?” her husband asked.
It was huge, and had what looked like four sets of wings. I gasped as I saw two heads.
Plenty of people started asking the same thing, all talking at once.
“It looks like a dragon,” an old lady said.
“Mom,” her daughter answered. “Dragons don’t have two heads.”
I squinted and cupped the top of my head with my hand to block out the sun.
It was flying but it struggled, like it was weak.
When it came closer and the dragon came into view, I realized what it was.
A couple confirmed it too.
It wasn’t one dragon, it was two and the bigger one was injured.
The smaller one struggled to keep it in the air.
People started to retreat and an arm pulled me back as it came closer.
I had to run and even fell to the side when the two dragons connected with the ground. Everything rumbled and dust lingered heavy in my nostrils.
It was quiet for a long time, and then police sirens shrilled in the distance. They came closer and closer until it felt as if one was literally on top of me.
Everything came to life again.
I pushed myself up, my hands were bloody and I could feel something rolling down my face. I pressed my finger, no pain, but when my fingers came into view, they were crimson red.
The entire play area was destroyed, the pathways were completely taken out, and a couple of trees were lying on their sides.
The two dragons still lay on the ground, covered with rocks.
Then we all saw it. It was a huge leech/worm and it was attached to one of the dragons.
A horrible hissing sound was coming from it, almost screeching, and it was moving in all directions.
The people close by ducked and dove, some women even put voice to their fear.
The rest of us just watched in horror.
The police were keeping their distance too, and started to clear a good distance around the two dragons who still lay on the ground, not making a sound or moving.
More sirens filled the park and white vans pulled in. They had a Techno Lab sign on them. I’d visited that place once, it was my duty to meet all the scientists of this world. They’d worked hand in hand with my father as he didn’t own an ability and always created new weapons that could help Sir Robert’s acid.
Swallow Annex dragons landed and started healing the people that had gotten badly injured.
“Are you okay?” a guy with a doctor’s coat asked me and I nodded. He left and started asking the same question to a couple standing behind me.
I looked back at the scene where the two dragons lay.
The scientists killed the leech-like creature and they removed it in a glass box, probably for research purposes. They literally had to cut it off the dragon’s back.
One of the dragons started to stir.
“Emanual,” one of the scientists said, and I gasped. “Can you transform back?”
Emanual. I knew he’d helped the Rubicon, Constance had said that, and the Rubicon had spoken many times of the red Sun-Blast. I tried to move forward as he grunted and tried to get back up, but he struggled.
Then with a plop the dragon body was gone, revealing the man I had almost kissed once. He’d never looked this tired before, and he swayed as he tried to stand on both his feet, butt naked. They handed him a robe while doctors were still crouching down next to the other dragon.
“What the hell happened, why did he go so close to the Creepers?”
That was a Creeper?
“Do you really need me to answer that question?” Emanual sounded angry, but also really, really drained.
The cockroaches pushed me out of the way, it was Kevin with a couple of reporters next to him.
“Was the Rubicon trying to commit suicide?” Kevin asked.
“Asshole!” I yelled as other people around me gasped and started to twitter.
“He is busy losing hope.”
“You think the princess is dead?” a woman asked.
I looked over my shoulder but the guy just shrugged. No this was not why he’d flown so close.
Emanual grabbed one reporter’s camera who’d taken a picture of the other dragon and smashed it against the ground.
I knew who the other dragon was, it was that leech that had made that mark on Blake’s back. I tried to reach my body up taller to see him.
But too many people blocked my way and I could only see a part of his wing. It was huge, massive and almost covered the entire area they’d closed off.
Emanual had an argument with the reporter whose camera he’d broken in the background and I heard him punch the guy. What was he going through? I knew he had cared for me, in a way he still did. The public still took videos on their Cammys though.
I walked closer, past more people to see my dragon.
The scientists were busy trying to wake him up and a deep growl came from his lips.
“Blake you need to change back,” I heard and I froze. Why had they called him Blake?
I came into his view and crouched. I saw his beautiful blue eyes. He was staring straight at me.
“Elena,” he whimpered softly which made me want to cry out and say I’m here, but I remembered what this was.
“She’s not here, you need to change.”
The Rubicon got up and people retreated again. I didn’t because I knew how big he’d gotten. My neck arched backwards as he got up on his paws. He was massive.
He swayed from left to right and more people retreated to the opposite side as I watched him collapse again, taking another tree down with him. The earth shook and rumbled and I had to keep my balance in order not to fall on my ass again.
Emanual changed back and assisted him with getting back up.
I couldn’t watch anymore and I let myself out.
I was back in the room with the device on my lap. My shield was still around me and I couldn’t hear a peep of what was going on in the other rooms. I wiped off a tear and hit another topic and found myself in another crowded place, this time there were plenty of cockroaches around.
Blake was in his human form, with Emanual again.
Blake screamed in pain. I knew he was going to be so pissed.
He pulled off another leech that was still hissing and burned it with his fire.
It didn’t want to die, only when he tore it into pieces with the help of Emanual did they succeed.
“We need a doctor, now,” Emanual said as he held Blake’s body. He was still
conscious and grunted from the pain.
I saw the side of his torso where the leech had gotten ahold of him. It was a big, burning wound, like the time a lava worm had scraped me. This one was different though. It was the mark on his back. I wanted to go out as I knew he would start cussing and saying mean words about why the Rubicon was doing this to him, but Kevin asked a question.
“Blake, what does this mean?” Kevin asked again. He doesn’t know you idiot, he just transformed back.
“Is the princess dead?”
I gaped at him, he was unbelievable and didn’t even care.
Blake turned around and almost fell against Kevin. He was begging for him to stop asking stupid questions and get him medical help. He clung onto the collar of his shirt.
Kevin’s eyes were huge as flashlights bounced off both Kevin and Blake.
“Stop asking me stupid fucking questions and help me find her,” he grunted and I froze completely solid. He didn’t ask for help, in fact he didn’t even seem to care that he needed it. I pulled out and rewound, and moved back in. It was the same statement. He wanted Kevin’s help to find me. Me, Elena Watkins. It was Blake, not the Rubicon. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever, he withheld the Rubicon from me, why…
I looked at a couple of others.
He wasn’t injured like the first two but he was extremely frustrated and annoyed as reporters found him, always in his human form.
He would break cameras and Kevin was always the one that pushed his buttons the worst.
It felt awesome when I saw Blake finally punch him and he fell into the crowd as more flashlights bounced off him, and people held him back.
He screamed at Kevin, that one day he would rip him to pieces.
He really had looked for me. Both of them.
I scrolled down and it was pages and pages filled with stuff that happened here, while I was in Etan.
As I went I stopped at a subject that read, Elena Discharged.
I knew the cockroaches weren’t there but I had to find out what this one was about.
I entered the scene and found plenty of cockroaches around me once again.
Kevin was standing on the opposite side.
This didn’t happen. I remembered this as it was only Emanual outside when I exited.