THE NEXT MORNING I found Lucian waiting by a rented SUV. I ran straight into his arms and gave him the longest kiss ever.
“I hope you’re done mixing business with pleasure,” he said with his face buried in my nape. He opened the passenger door for me. “So, did you enjoy the museum?”
“Yes, especially the exhibit on you and your family,” I teased.
His face turned red. “I hate that stupid thing. It took hours for them to get the measurements right, and they still did a crappy job.”
I laughed excitedly. “So where are we going?”
“I told you it’s a surprise, although not the one I had planned, but it will have to do.” He started the SUV and music blared from the radio.
“I want to play you something, ” he said, and took out a disc from a gray CD file and slid it into the player. The song had an upbeat rhythm, and I started bouncing in my seat. The lyrics were deep, and I got lost in them as I listened to the vocalist singing of a girl he hadn’t found yet. He sounded lost.
Lucian smiled, and looked at me every five-seconds through the corner of his eyes.
“What?” I asked, scared I had something in my hair or worse, my teeth.
“You know who that is?”
“Who? The guy singing?”
He nodded.
I listened again. “No, should I?”
A huge grin appeared on his face.
“C’mon, Elena, guess.”
I giggled. “Is it you?”
He roared with contagious laughter. “Hell no. I can’t keep a tune.”
“Then who?” I knew I’d never heard this voice before.
“It’s Blake.”
My mouth dropped. “Get out! Really?”
“He has what it takes to make it big, but the council doesn’t want to grant him permission to go for it, because he’s the Rubicon. It doesn’t stop him from doing a couple of gigs, though.”
“Wow. Do you think he wrote this song for Tabitha?”
Lucian gave a chuckle I’d never heard before.
“What?”
“Elena, Blake only keeps Tabitha for one thing?”
“He’s really that shallow?” I asked, disgusted.
He smiled again, but this time I could see sadness around the edges. “You still need to learn that Blake only does things for himself, no one else.”
“Then who did he write this for?”
Lucian shrugged. “He recorded this about a year ago.” His forehead crinkled in thought.
“You really miss him, don’t you?”
He wrinkled his nose, not answering, as he gazed out the window on his side.
“So, what song did you play when you faced the big, mighty Rubicon?” I needed to change the topic. A huge grin spread over his face and lit up his eyes. He happily took out another CD.
“Blake once admitted that there was something about this song that scares the living crap out of him.” The radio swallowed the CD, and his grin spread wider.
My eyes grew bigger as the song started. “You know AC/DC?”
“Elena, everybody knows AC/DC,” he said, rolling his eyes.
I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, trying to imagine what Lucian looked like being introduced by “Thunderstruck.” It gave me goosebumps.
“Wow.” It slipped out as my image of him in gladiator gear exposed his muscular arms.
“What?”
“I can just imagine what it must be like. I’d be scared too if I was Blake.”
He laughed and turned into a deserted parking lot. When the SUV stopped, he put on a baseball cap and shades.
“Just a precaution.” He smiled and jumped out to open my door. “You don’t know what I had to do to pull off this surprise.”
When we walked to the entrance, I saw that it was an art gallery. “You didn’t?”
“I had to.” He knocked three times on the glass doors.
A woman with a short bob opened the door. She wore a soft gray suit with a white satin blouse completely covering her neck.
“Good morning, your Highness,” she greeted Lucian.
I suppressed my giggle.
“Maggie,” he muttered.
“You must be Elena. I’m Maggie and this is my art gallery. Welcome.”
The gallery was empty, besides us and the masterpieces on the wall.
We followed Maggie from painting to painting as she explained more about the pieces and the artists. Suddenly I missed Dad again. He had promised me that one day we would go to an art gallery, but we had never gotten around to it.
A painting in the corner caught my eye. It was a pencil sketch of a woman sitting against a tree. The artist had done an amazing job. Her face and eyes carried a deep sadness in them that made my heart ache.
“This is a portrait done by Renaldo Aramiz; the woman in the picture is none other than Queen Catherine.”
Lucian and I both gasped.
“Are you serious?” he asked, and she nodded.
“It doesn’t look anything like her.”
“It’s not supposed to either. She was merely the inspiration,” Maggie said simply.
“Was she really so sad?” he asked.
“It was the year before she died,” Maggie said. Cheng’s story of Tanya leaving her jumped to my mind. The queen must have struggled with losing her dragon sister.
Lucian touched the lines that formed the queen’s face, as if he wanted to wipe away an invisible tear. “How much?”
“It’s not for sale, Lucian.”
“Are you sure about that?” He smiled.
She grinned back with soft eyes. “That smile won’t work on me. I’ll never sell it.”
“Elena’s an artist too.” Lucian said.
She looked at me with slightly raised eyebrows and a Julia Roberts smile. “You should show me one day,” she said.
“They’re not that great.” I pointed to the picture of the queen.
Lucian glared at me. Clearly he didn’t like the way I sold myself short.
A bright flash reflected on the colors of the next painting as we made our way over to it. It almost made the leaves on the trees come to life. Lucian jolted his head back when more flashes bounced off the walls. He yanked me back behind a pillar, pulled off his leather jacket, and threw it over my head. Maggie froze on one spot, staring with huge eyes at the front door.
My heart beat fast. “What is it?”
Lucian ignored my question. The light overpowered the gallery and people were yelling Lucian’s name.
His jaw muscles clenched and his eyes hardened. It almost made him look like a dragon. “Who did you tell, Maggie?”
“Lucian, I promise I didn’t say one word.” She spoke fast and she sounded just as shocked.
He took a deep breath. “Just wait here okay. I’m so sorry, Elena.”
I just nodded, not really knowing what was happening and feeling as if my heart was going to explode with the tempo it beat in my chest.
“I’m going to kill the person that leaked this,” Maggie said.
“Are those people from the press?” My voice broke on the last word and I cleared my throat.
“Yes, Elena. He really didn’t plan on this.”
“Can we wait them out?” Images of them trampling over us to get clear shots jumped inside my head.
She huffed. “If it was another celebrity, maybe, but Lucian McKenzie? No way.”
I closed my eyes and wished I could disappear. I wasn’t good with handling big crowds, especially ones with cameras. “Is this going to be in the newspapers tomorrow?”
“Sweetheart, it’s the prince of Tith. It’s going to be in every magazine.”
Lucian came back. “I’m so sorry, Elena. Welcome to my world.”
I felt sorry for him if this was what his life felt like. “What are we going to do?”
“We can wait it out, but they’re not going to leave. By the next hour, the crowd will have multiplied and who knows what it could look like in three hours. They know that I’m in here with you and will wait until you come out, even if it takes three days.”
I swallowed hard while my stomach took a few turns. An image of me hurling in front of cameras jumped into my mind.
“Honey, the way I see it is, give the ones out there what they want and get the hell out before more arrive,” Maggie said.
I closed my eyes, not knowing how I would be able to walk out of here. I was nervous.
“Here.” Lucian gave me his shades that were way too big for me and pulled the hood of his leather jacket over my head. “We walk out when security arrives. Don’t say a word, Elena; we might be able to hide your identity.” He glared at Maggie again.
“I won’t say anything, Lucian.”
“Nobody else knows her name except you. Don’t get any ideas, Maggie!” he warned.
She locked her mouth with an imaginary key. Three hard knocks on the door made me jump.
“It’s just security. Are you ready?” he croaked.
I nodded.
“Not a word, Elena, and keep your head down.”
I did what he said and kept my eyes on the ground, while clinging to his hand.
He opened the door and the first thing I heard was the security men speaking over their radios using codes.
“Prince Lucian, what’s her name?” one reporter shouted.
“Are you a couple?” another yelled.
I didn’t know what he did, as no sound came from his lips. Everybody yelled questions as security tried to lead us back to the SUV. I allowed Lucian to guide the way as I stared at the ground. My heart bounced with the rhythm of a thousand flashlights. How could Lucian handle this kind of attention?
We finally reached the SUV, and he helped me inside.
“Sorry about this,” he whispered in my ear. “Just keep your head down.”
I smiled as he closed the door.
Don’t look up, Elena. I waited for him to get in the driver’s seat.
When his door opened, more flashing lights assaulted us. The security men asked the paparazzi to back away from the vehicle, but it didn’t look as if it was working.
Lucian revved the engine and reversed out of the parking lot. I was glad the windows were tinted, but the photographers didn’t care; they still took pictures like crazy.
“It’s fine, you can look now. Are you okay?” he asked, sounding the way I felt.
I lifted up my head to look at him. “Yeah, are those pictures going to be in all the magazines?”
“I’m so sorry, Elena. I should’ve thought twice about today’s trip. I’m so naive when it comes to people keeping their mouths shut,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Is it like this every time you go outside?”
He chuckled. “Pretty much. Sometimes I get away with hiding behind my disguise.”
Lucian honked for the two bikes in front of us. They saluted him and turned in the opposite direction at the stop sign. He floored the SUV, and we were back at Dragonia in no time. We kissed goodbye at the stairs until someone close by cleared his throat.
It was another student, and he didn’t look very happy. “Master Longwei wants to see you in his office.”
“Thank you, Stan,” Lucian said, and the guy ran off. “Don’t worry, he probably wants to know what happened. It’s not a scolding. Go take a hot bath and I’ll see you at dinner, okay?”
I did what he said and sighed as I slid into a hot bubble bath. When Becky and Sammy returned from their day out, I told them what had happened.
“Are you okay?” Becky asked. We sat on the couches, each having a Coke. The sugar helped as it entered my bloodstream.
“Taking a bath seemed to work.” My heart beat at a high tempo as I told them everything.
“Elena?” Sammy put her arm around my shoulder.
“It’s going to be in every newspaper and every magazine, you guys. I don’t want to even think about what his parents are going to say. Not to mention what they will do.”
“Well, if Lucian didn’t tell his dad about you, I guess they’re going to find out the hard way. I’m so glad that I’m not Lucian,” Becky said.
“Becky!” Sammy glared at her.
“What?”
Sammy rolled her eyes.
“Will he get into trouble?” I tried to ignore Becky’s remark.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Becky said, and eyed Sammy again with a huge question in her eyes.
Sammy shook her head. “Remember what you said to me? Everything happens for a reason. We just need a little bit of faith.”
“Thanks you guys,” I said, feeling a bit better.
We talked about their day and how goofy George acted around Becky, who was gloating.
At six, we went to dinner. I didn’t speak much. The images of King Helmut forcing Lucian to break up with me played over in my mind. Lucian kept stroking my back, and every ten minutes or so, he kissed me on my shoulder.
Lucian started to tell them about the gallery and the queen’s painting.
“I’m sure it’s a first date Elena will never forget,” Becky teased.
I couldn’t help but smile. “You got that one right.”
Around eight, we walked slowly back to our dorms.
“Elena, meet me tonight?” Lucian whispered in my ear. I gave him a frantic look, thinking that we’d had enough drama for one day, not to mention what happened the last time we sneaked out at night.
He chuckled softly. “We won’t go to the lake.”
“What if we get caught? Master Longwei will chuck my ass out of this place.”
He raised one eyebrow. “With a mark as dark as yours, I doubt it. I’ll wait for you by the door around twelve.” He cocked his head indicating the big wooden one to our left.
“Fine, but if we get caught, I’ll blame everything on you.”
“It’s a blame I’ll take with pleasure,” he said through a smile. “Goodnight, my Juliet.”
I blushed as I climbed the stairs and giggled at how goofy he sounded. Some of the boys teased him about his last line, but he didn’t seem to care.
We’d barely made it to the room when the most horrible sound wailed inside my ears.
