HERBERT WATKINS
We left around seven.
All our bags were packed. I made Elena wear a hoodie. Helmut arranged a drop-off to the port in Elm.
On the way to the elevator, her rapid breath whistled through her teeth. I touched her knee. “We’ll be okay, bear. It’s fun. You’ll see.”
She flashed an awkward smile.
At the port, I was relieved that nobody was there to bombard us. Helmut had made arrangements for us to take the royal elevator. They put our bags in cargo and sent them off separately.
“Her first time?” asked the operator, whose name tag read Amalia.
I nodded.
She smiled at Elena. “It’s like a rollercoaster ride. The best ever. Just remember: when it stops, take a deep breath, and it will be over sooner than you know.”
Elena nodded.
I took the first seat. I buckled up as Elena sat beside me. An operator strapped her in.
“Enjoy,” Amalia said as the elevator closed.
“I get it why you call it an elevator.”
“Hold my hand and take that breath when I tell you to.”
“Okay.” She sounded scared.
“Three, two, one,” I counted. Then came the drop.
Elena shrieked. I relished every millisecond. Gravity and momentum tugged on our seats—and internal organs—at breakneck speed. We came to a halt.
“Deepest breath you can,” I ordered, “and don’t let it go.”
We both sucked in air. Pain seared through my body. It built in my temples.
This was unnatural for any living being, but it sure beat the hell out of traveling seventeen hours.
We finally stopped.
Elena emitted a grunt. “What the hell was that, Dad?”
“Teleporting, bear, with loads of technology. Sorry about the pain. It gets better with time. I promise.”
The doors opened.
I heard them before I saw them. “Jako Lemier, you are under arrest for treason in the first degree.”
Men seized me and dragged me from my seat.
“Dad” Elena cried.
“It’s okay, bear. I counted on this.”
“Jako, I’m sorry,” Helmut yelled, somewhere out of my line of vision. “They had the Ancients’ seal. There is nothing I can do. I swear I’ll get you out of this.”
“Don’t sweat it.”
“Dad!”
“Elena, calm down,” Lucian said. “Your father will be fine.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she shrieked. “He didn’t do what they think.”
“We know. It’s a good thing. He finally gets his chance to explain everything. Okay?”
“I’m fine, bear,” I said as they cuffed me.
“Are those necessary?” Maggie came into the room and wrapped her arms around Elena.
“Maggie, please.” Only one word, suffused with so much.
“She is safe, here.” She understood. “You have my word.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you soon, bear.” I said as they pried me away from my girl.
They read me my rights and escorted me to a van outside.
Helmut was roaring on a phone behind us, demanding legal counsel.
I knew he’d back me up, and I knew Elena would be fine.
This was what I wanted. A chance to explain to the Ancients what I was doing, who I protected on the other side for sixteen years.
The hearing came fast. So did the legal team Helmut paid for.
I spilled everything.
“You have any evidence other than the girl you claim her to be?” my new lawyer, Rickus, asked.
“My word is my bond. It’s enough.”
“Jako, much has changed these past fifteen years. Without King Albert’s influence, the Ancients are not what they are supposed to be.”
“Fine. Well, there’s Blake. He’s not dark. That tantrum was him trying to stop her. He knows who she is. That’s why he sought her in Tith.”
“That might work.” Rickus scratched his cheek. “Anything else? DNA records, a letter Albert or the queen left behind?”
“No, she was being protected. Anything like that would’ve jeopardized the mission, don’t you think?” It was hard not to lose my patience with these dumb questions. “We didn’t plan for them to die, Rickus. They were going to announce her themselves. Clean. Safe. No paper trail.”
He sighed. “They might summon her and examine her.”
“Fine, but they cannot experiment on her. She is royalty. I will fight, like I have all these years.”
He nodded.
Two hours later, flanked by the legal team, I stood before the Ancients.
My story took a long time to tell. How we got Elena across the Wall. The potion we gave Cara was illegal. Tanya—whose continued absence was beginning to make me bitter—and I murdered her, or so Ancients would rule if they didn’t buy my version of history.
Everyone I once knew turned out. Many dragons showed their respect. I’d served alongside them as Louie’s dragon. Others saw me at least as a peer.
The Ancients listened to every word. They asked no questions, then left to reach a verdict.
The wait was excruciating. By the time they emerged, I was half-mad with anticipation.
“We must see this self-appointed royal.”
“She isn’t self-spoken, your honor,” I exclaimed. “I’m telling the truth. If the queen’s dragon weren’t so cowardly…”
Tanya’s voice rang out from the entrance. “I’m no coward.”
“Seize her!” ordered the head of security.
“You’ll do no such thing. I am the queen’s dragon, even unto death. She was my Dent. I shall never betray her. The only crime I committed was sacrificing my daughter because of a foretelling we all live by… to save our world.”
The Ancients fell quiet.
“Irene told me one wouldn’t make it but two might,” Tanya said, her voice even and sure. How did she talk about it so calmly? “Cara is the reason the princess lives. I’ve abandoned the princess when I should’ve raised her. That is my second crime, if you choose to be petty. Jako speaks the truth.”
She came forward and told her story, everything, from the beginning. How Albert wanted to tell Robert but didn’t because she made him. Robert would’ve joined, but the Rubicon needed him. It was her fault, she insisted, not the king’s. They did everything to protect Elena, the heir. She recounted how I found them three days later on the other side. She gestured at me. “I owe this man my life. So does the heir to the Malone bloodline. Whatever you’re considering, I’ll gladly take his punishment.”
The words reverberated in my bones. “Are you insane?”
“Silence!” several Ancients ordered in unison.
“You both have committed treason,” Duclin said. “There is no tangible evidence that this girl is King Albert and Queen Catherine’s heir. The Rubicon has gone dark and attacked the prince of Tith because he was a threat. If evidence can be produced in the next fortnight, I’ll lift my punishment. Otherwise, you are both sentenced to execution. Two weeks from today.”
All the oxygen left my lungs.
Tanya’s too.
They seized us both.
“I’ll get you out of this, Jako,” Helmut called from the gallery as they took Tanya and me into custody. “I swear we’ll find something.”
But there was nothing to find. I’d personally guaranteed that sixteen years ago.
I’m going to die in the next fortnight. About fucking time.
Elena is where she should be. She knows who she was. She’ll be okay.
That was all that mattered.
Days ticked by. My eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Tanya escaped. She was a Green-Vapor, one of the strongest. It made sense that she was Catherine’s dragon. Just as fierce as her rider.
She wanted to free me too, but I told her to go.
“You don’t deserve this.”
“It’s time,” I said. “I lived my life. I’m ready to leave this world.”
She shook her head. “She needs you.”
I chuckled. “How can I be there as a fugitive? I refuse to run anymore. Go.”
Tears pooled in her beautiful eyes. “I know you will never believe me, but I still love you, Jako. With all my heart. When you see Cara, tell her I’m sorry.”
I nodded, and she left.
Time crept by. I lost count of days. Part of me started to regret that I didn’t go with Tanya.
At last they came. Not the dungeon guards. Emanual and Helmut. I sat up in surprise as the guard who accompanied them opened my cell door.
“We might have evidence,” Helmut said, charged with manic energy. “It’s happening in an hour.”
I tamped down the hope he’d sparked. “What sort of evidence?”
“Albert had a contingency plan, in case they didn’t make it. A secret vault they built for Elena. Her blood can open it.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Tanya is a different story, though. She escaped.”
“They never had a chance of containing her,” I said.
His face turned wistful. “So like Kate.”
“How is Elena?”
“Good. Learning fast. Worrying about you.”
“Training?”
“Following your plan, right under our noses,” he assured me heartily. “Let’s go.”
They led me out of the dungeon, the guard pushing a bit too roughly. I blinked owlishly in the sudden flood of light after weeks in complete darkness. I was allowed to take a shower and given fresh clothes. Within an hour, we were off to this mysterious vault Albert had built.
“How did you find this?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” Helmut admitted. “Emanual couldn’t find anything on the other side, either. We almost lost hope, but then a banker registered on the other side came forward. Said he’d heard news from Paegeia about the girl who claimed to be the princess and was protected by a royal dragon. He said his father charged him with guarding King Albert’s vault until fate revealed itself or until he needed to pass on the duty to his heir. He was certain the time had come, so he made contact.”
A tightness that I didn’t realize had been squeezing my chest loosened and I could breathe again. Maybe there was life in these scales left.
“Robert refuses to leave Elena’s side,” Emanual offered. “He’s basically assumed Blake’s duties.”
“He believes her?”
“Came to the palace the minute your hearing was over, demanding to see her. One look was all it took. Just one look.”
“At least she had all of you,” I said. “Thank you.”
Helmut touched my shoulder, suddenly apologetic. “You can’t go with her. I tried. She won’t even know you’re there. The banker promises it will open for her blood.”
Elena had never been a fan of blood. “How does she feel about that?”
“Nervous as hell.” Helmut hesitated, then blurted, “I think Lucian is falling for her.”
“Helmut!”
“I know. He knows too. She is staying at the palace, and he comes home every weekend. Two good kids plus hormones at that age? It was bound to happen.”
Poor Lucian. Bound for heartbreak, like a train conductor who knew there was a cliff ahead but couldn’t brake. “His funeral.”
“I said that too.”
“Blake?” I swear, if he so much as—
“Still sedated.”
I blinked. “How long?”
“Until a rider attempts to claim him. Everyone thinks he’s tipped into darkness. Nobody wants to try.” Helmut didn’t say what he was no doubt thinking—it would be his son, and this time he might not survive the Rubicon’s wrath. Come on, Elena.
“He’s just angry.” I slapped his shoulder. “You know that.”
“I do. Maybe after today those fruitcakes will too.” Bitterness dripped from Helmut’s words.
“Albert would roll in his grave if he knew how they’re treating us.”
“They don’t care about the dead. They haven’t for a long time.”
We stopped at a room jammed with people, all clustered around a large TV. An ocean of people eager to find out if Elena was the heir.
She was. I’d raised her knowing it. But she didn’t know it. Stupid stupid stupid. I’d failed her in so many ways.
I watched as Elena put her hand in a tree.
Lucian and Maggie stood nearby, ready to assist if something went awry.
She took out her finger, now adorned with a flash of bright red blood, and waited.
Then something happened.
Helmut laughed.
I closed my eyes and smiled. When I opened them, everyone was on their knees, bowing to my little bear. Her mother radiated through her. Her father was evident in her features.
She was a Malone through and through.
“Take the cuffs off. Now,” Helmut ordered the guard. “This dragon is a hero, not a traitor.”
The guard freed my wrists. Freedom was within my reach once again, and I found I wanted it after all.
The kingly expression came back. “You know the hard work is only just beginning. She needs you, Jako.”
“I know. Guarding another royal.”
“It never stops.”
I grinned. “Nope.”
