WHEN I OPENED my eyes I was in a dark place. I couldn’t even make out the outline of where I was.
My heart rate started to rise as I remembered the last thing I’d gone through. Am I finally dead?
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Lucian’s voice filled the darkness. I was dead.
I crawled to his voice and collided hard with him. We both laughed. I didn’t care anymore. This was where I wanted to be and if it meant that I no longer lived then I was fine with that.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“Don’t know, I think it’s time to find out.”
“I’m not dead?”
Lucian chuckled. “I don’t think so, sweetheart. The other side is very bright and peaceful. I think we are in some sort of closet.”
“Closets aren’t this dark, Lucian.”
He chuckled. “You haven’t played in one inside Paegeia yet.” The sole of his boots found a hollow surface, and kicked, hard. I had to squint as bright light filled the confined space.
A maid shrieked and linen fell onto the floor. She ran in the opposite direction as Lucian and I crawled out of what did look like a closet.
“Told you,” he joked.
“Whatever.” I looked around. “Where the hell are we?” We stood in a huge hallway. It was well-lit with a deep brown, lush carpet running from one side to the other.
“I don’t know, but something tells me we should find out.” He grabbed my hand and led me to the opposite side that turned into another hall. We looked around for a second before Lucian pulled me to the left into another hall. When we exited, we found ourselves facing a huge staircase running downward.
“Are we in a castle?”
“It’s not just any castle, Elena. I know this place.”
Lucian held me tight and we both watched his father passing without noticing either of us.
“I don’t think they can see us.” We followed his father but kept our distance. He stopped by some guards and a man wearing the thickest black coat I’d ever seen. His back was toward me and Lucian. The two of them spoke for only a second and then the man in the coat turned around, and flashed his perfect smile. It was my father, the king.
“Dad!” He looked different. I ran after him and could hear Lucian’s breath right beside me. “Dad!” We followed him down the stairs, but he was fast.
“He can’t hear you, Elena.” Lucian’s hand grabbed me around my arm and pulled me back.
I stopped as I watched him walking out of two huge doors. I looked around and found myself in a lobby. It was beautiful and there were three other staircases as well as the one we’d just run down. They all led to different levels of the castle. I sucked in a breath when my eyes landed on a large portrait of Queen Catherine, my mother, hanging on one wall.
“Lucian, is this what I think it is?”
He smiled. “Welcome home, princess.”
“Don’t call me that.” I smacked him playfully with the back of my hand.
He chuckled again. “Come, I’ve got a feeling that we should follow your father.” He grabbed my hand and led me through the same doors my dad had just exited.
For some reason we moved faster than normal humans and we soon found my father speaking to another man. He handed him reins that were attached to a big, cream-colored horse. My father hoisted himself onto the horse’s back. The guy that gave him the reins looked past me, and another strong emotion jolted through my body. It was my dad, the one who’d raised me: Herbert, Jako, whatever his name was. He looked so different, younger, happier.
“Elena, you okay?”
“It’s my dad.”
“Jako was the man who raised you?”
I nodded and gave him a soft smile. My steps made for him, but Lucian’s grasp found my arm again.
“He can’t see you, sweetheart. We have to go.” He looked past me and I found my real father leaving on the horse. He was in a hurry and we had to run to keep up with him. He kept looking over his shoulder which made me want to duck.
Lucian chuckled every time and pulled me back by the arm to carry on.
He can’t see you, Elena. Nobody can see you, I reminded myself over and over. This felt so weird. If I wasn’t dead then what the hell was I doing here? And how could I run like the wind?
King Albert went into a forest after he surveyed the grounds one more time. We followed him and watched as he stopped and climbed off his horse. He tied it up by a tree and took a small path to his left. We followed him further until he stopped in front of a huge boulder. He spoke an incantation and the boulder rolled out of the way. He looked around one last time to make sure that nobody followed him.
I froze as his gaze fell on me, but he looked back and disappeared through the hole in the rocks. We slipped through before the boulder rolled back into place and saw how King Albert lit a manmade torch and carried on, descending down a steep passage.
“Why are we here?” I asked Lucian softly as we followed the glowing light.
“I don’t know yet, but everything happens for a reason, Elena. I don’t even think that this is our time. I think it’s somewhere in the past.”
“The past? Don’t be absurd.”
“This is Paegeia, Elena.” He raised his eyes and passed me.
I exhaled softly and followed him further down the passage which finally led into another forest. We found a small wooden cabin in the middle. Horrible screams came from inside and King Albert ran to the door. We started to pick up our pace.
Lucian and I entered the cabin with my father and we both gasped when we found Queen Catherine lying on the bed. She was pregnant and looked like she was in horrible pain.
Tanya Le Frey was right beside her.
“Is there anything I can do?” my father said and crouched down at the side of the bed.
I walked to the front of the bed to see the queen’s face. She looked tired as strands of wet hair clung to her face and sweat ran down her forehead, but she was still as gorgeous as she’d been in all the pictures.
“Go get me a blanket and some more hot water. Not too hot, Albert,” Tanya ordered. “And what took you so long?”
“You know it’s not easy for me to sneak out. I actually had to tell Robert to go home. He knows something is wrong, Tanya.”
“We spoke about this, the fewer people who know, the better.”
“He’s my dragon,” my father growled softly as he prepared a huge bowl filled with water.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Queen Catherine grunted.
“Lucian what is this?”
“It’s the day you were born. Someone wanted you to see this. Could it be?”
“Be what?”
“Your mother kept asking me to tell you how much she loved you. She said giving you up was the hardest thing in the entire world. Our time was always so short and I never did get a chance to give you her message. I think she’s getting what she wanted.”
I looked back at the tired queen lying on the bed.
“One more push, Katie, you can do it.”
“I can’t,” she cried.
At once, my father was at her side. He grabbed her hand and she scowled at him.
“You can do this, love. You fought in two wars, c’mon, doing this is supposed to be easy.”
“Don’t make me hate you more. You try and push a melon out of your ass then we can talk.”
All of us had to suppress our laughter.
“It’s time, you can do it. One big push, Katie. That should do it.”
The queen yelled again and I buried my face inside Lucian’s chest. When I heard a cry I looked again. The baby was so tiny. Oh shit, was that really me?
Tears rolled over the queen’s face as Tanya just stared at me. “We’ve got a problem.” She looked at them, sharing a good laugh and an embrace. Both their happiness dissipated the minute Tanya said those words.
“What’s wrong with him?” The queen asked.
Him?
Tanya didn’t answer.
“What is wrong with my baby?”
“It’s not a him. It’s a her.”
The king and queen looked at one another. The queen started to shake her head. “I can’t do this Albert.”
“Katie, we have no choice.”
“Just give her here.” The queen held out her arms and Tanya wrapped a blanket over the tiny baby. She placed the bundle inside the queen’s arms. She looked at her with eyes so soft. The look on her face spoke a million words. It was as if she’d won a prize, something she’d really wanted and that all the pain this baby had caused her was long forgotten. She placed the baby next to her on the bed and opened the blanket. Her tiny leg carried a big brown mark.
I looked at my own leg carrying a similar dark splat and looked back at mom and baby on the bed. I went closer to see the look on her face again as she inspected the tiny little girl. My father was right next to them, kissing the baby’s head softly.
The queen looked up at the king. “This wasn’t part of the deal, Albert. I can’t do this.”
“We can’t back down now,” Tanya said.
“Give me a minute with her,” my dad asked.
“Albert.”
“A minute, Tanya,” he said sternly and she just gave him the look.
“Fine, but you are only making this harder.” Tanya walked out of the room.
My father touched the queen’s face gently. “I know how long you’ve waited, Katie. But we can’t keep her. When the trouble is over, we can tell everyone and she can come to the castle. Right now, they will kill her if she comes home with us.”
“I can’t do this!” the queen yelled. “A boy was a totally different thing. I never thought that it would be a little girl, Albert.”
“The pond showed you.”
“It showed me both. First the boy then the girl. I never thought in a million years that it would only be one of them.” She wiped away her tears.
My father got up and paced around with his hand pinching his nose. He finally stopped and looked at the Queen. “So what do you want to do? You want to take her home and endanger her, because I promise you Katie, I don’t know who is going to betray us, or when. I don’t have that answer yet.”
“I know.”
“Then what do you want me to do? As God is my witness Catherine, I want to keep her just as much as you do, but we can’t.” Tears welled up in his eyes as he kneeled before my mother’s bed, begging her to stick with the plan. “When the trouble is over, I promise she will come home.”
“What if the trouble is never over? What if she grows up without knowing who she is?”
“She will know who we are. She will know that you loved her. Tanya promised, and when it’s all over, she’ll be sent for.”
“A baby this small needs her mother. She won’t survive without me.” Tears rolled down my mother’s cheeks.
“Then what do you want me to do, Catherine? Because I don’t know.”
“I need time with her. A month.”
My father closed his eyes. “Okay, a month.”
“I stayed a month with them?” I asked Lucian who had tears in his eyes too.
He didn’t have the answer. He didn’t even know about me, he was like three, four years old. The queen kissed the baby on the head and brought her close to her chest.
Both Lucian and I couldn’t stop looking.
“She loved you, Elena.”
I nodded and wiped away a tear again.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. We both jumped as Tanya walked into the cabin again. “We should go,” she ordered.
“No, we’re giving Katie a month,” my father said.
She looked at both of them with raised eyes. “Are you insane? Katie, we can come back when it’s safe.”
“I want a month with her, that’s all I’m asking,” my mother replied in a stern voice.
“No, she needs to go now. We don’t know who is going to betray us, or when.”
“A month, Tanya. That’s all we’re asking!” my dad roared.
“And what is going to happen after a month, Albert? Another month?”
“Don’t patronize me. We need a month, it’s non-negotiable.”
“You are putting this child and the Rubicon’s life in danger.”
“Oh crap,” my mom said.
“What is it?” both of them rushed to my mother’s side.
“Opposite dent,” my mom said with worried eyes.
Lucian started to chuckle. My father and Tanya just stared at her and they all started to laugh.
“He will love her like nobody else, Katie,” my father said with a smile.
“That’s not easing my worries here.”
“I know. Mine neither. Make you a deal, the first ten years, we don’t tell them at all.”
They laughed again and my mom cupped my father’s face who in return succumbed completely to her. “I love you, promise me you will find whoever is going to betray us and kill them, Albert. I don’t care who it is.”
He turned his head, touched her hand gently and kissed the inside of her palm. “I promise you.”
Tanya went over to my mom and lay behind her. She looked over her shoulder and down at baby me. She stroked the little face gently. “One month, Katie.”
“Thank you,” my mom gave Tanya a backwards kiss on the cheek.
The next couple of days Lucian and I were stuck in the cabin. I couldn’t stop staring at my mom and dad handling me. My mom breastfed and she even sang me the sweetest lullaby. It brought tears to my eyes thinking that one month was all she’d had. She didn’t get the chance to see me again like my father. I’d been so mean to her in my dreams.
Lucian sat behind me against the wall and held me tight.
Some nights my father walked with me in the room. We had our father-daughter dance at a very young age. I wish I could remember how their embraces felt. The dance was so beautiful.
Lucian squeezed me softly as we could just watched and my eyes caught something at the entrance of the room. It was just a glance of another person, and then it was gone.
“Elene,” Lucian asked. “What is it.” He looked at what I was staring. Nothing was there now, but I know I saw something, someone. It was there for a small second.
“It’s nothing. Probably just my mind playing tricks.”
Around the end of the second week, my mother panicked. I wasn’t moving. Tanya helped and they got me to wake up.
They brought in a physician who Tanya compelled afterwards and he gave my mother the grave news. I was dying.
Both of them cried for the next couple of days and I could see on Tanya’s face how it tormented her.
On the third day after the physician came, Tanya sat both my parents down. She was crying but I could see in her attitude that her mind was made up. “She might not have to die.”
My mom looked up. “A Swallow Annex won’t be able to heal her, Tanya, she’s too fragile.”
“I’m not talking about healing, Katie. I’m talking about the Calupso potion.”
Both my parents gasped.
“Are you insane? It wouldn’t be the same. She wouldn’t carry our blood or be ours. She needs to be from our bloodline to claim Blake one day.”
“There’s a way. I know it’s going to work.”
“What way?”
“My foretelling,” Tanya said and looked at my mom.
By the look on my mom’s face she knew Tanya’s foretelling well. “One might not make it but two might do the trick.”
Tanya nodded. “I never knew what it meant, until last night. Cara.”
It was quiet for a while.
“No, it won’t work. She’s a dragon, Elena is a human.”
“Cara will die when she gets her human form, which will be Elena.”
“You don’t know that, Tanya.” My dad was upset.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense, Albert. Cara is a Thunderlight. They haven’t existed for hundreds of years. It’s going to work, but we don’t have a lot of time. She’s going to get her human form soon, and when that happens, we’ll lose our only chance.”
“Are you sure it will be my little girl?”
“Cara will die.”
“I can’t ask you…”
“You don’t have to.” Tanya looked down at baby me. “She’s important.”
My mom kissed me again. “When do you want to do it?”
“Tonight.”
My mom cried again and my dad hugged her with me in her arms.
“Two weeks, I only got two weeks.”
“She’ll live, Katie. That’s the most important thing.” my father said quietly.
My mom nodded. “What about Jako?” She looked at Tanya again.
“He won’t give his consent. I’ll have to do it without his knowledge.”
“Tanya…”
“He’ll understand one day.”
That night I met Cara. She was relatively big but still young. I wished I could touch her, tell her how much I appreciated this. So many people had died to keep me alive. Was it really worth it?
We saw how Tanya prepared both the potions. My father played with Cara for a long time. He had a sad look in his eyes.
Around nine Tanya took Cara outside the cabin and they left for a short while.
“We can’t let her do this,” my mom said.
“Do you have a better plan, Katie?”
She shook her head.
“Then it’s our only chance.”
When Tanya and Cara came back, I watched how Tanya fed one part of the potion to Cara and my mom the other one to me through a bottle.
She struggled as I was already so weak. She kissed me for a final time. Her lips lingered for a long time on my head. “Be strong and know I loved you more than anything in this world,” she whispered. My father was next and Tanya took both me and Cara into another room. My mother collapsed in tears and my father knelt down beside her and wrapped his big arms around her tiny body. Both cried as they just held one another.
A strange feeling started to emerge in my stomach and I looked at Lucian.
“It’s time to go,” he said and a strong force pulled us out of that time warp. We landed on the top of a mountain.
We were surrounded by trees and the night was gorgeous with a million stars in the sky. Lucian went to sit near a tree and I took the spot in front of him. He wrapped his arms around me tight. “She loved you, Elena, both of them did. They never wanted to give you away.”
“I know. It’s just so unfair, so many people had to die, Lucian. You, Jako, Brian, Cara….my mom.”
“I’d die a thousand deaths for you. A part of me always knew who you were.” Our hands entwined with one another. “When you told me that day that you heard poems, I knew immediately. I just couldn’t put two and two together. How you’d escaped the Wall. I guess I didn’t want it to be true. Then my father told me right before I left why they’d changed their mind and who you reminded them of. That’s why he stared at you that night, because you are your father’s child, Elena. You have his eyes, his hair, except the rainbow thing.”
I laughed.
“My mother told me you carry her as well. The way you are reminded her of Catherine.” He sighed. “When I finally got to speak to Tanya, it didn’t take long for me to guess. I just had to say your name. She was devastated by the death of Jako and that you didn’t know. I immediately knew that Paul was a danger and he wanted to hurt you, but I panicked, that was why the interference was so bad. I knew Paul was lying and I knew the darkness in Blake was too strong, otherwise he would’ve said something a long time ago.”
“He knew?” I said.
“Elena, you would’ve died if you’d tried to claim him with Cara inside of you. Nothing happens without a reason.”
I shook my head. “He lied to all of us, Lucian. People died because he lied.”
“Can you blame him? He didn’t want to be tamed, and that was not Blake. It was the Rubicon.”
“I don’t care, he’s both.”
“Elena, he will change.”
“I don’t care! He hates my guts.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Well I do. I felt it.”
“There is another foretelling, it was the first one Irene ever saw. She predicted it when she was alone. It’s about a love so strong that it could conquer anything it wanted, change barriers and make history. The words to the entire foretelling are beautiful. Many tried to live up to it, but none could ever hold it. I thought she was talking about us, but it wasn’t us. It’s you and Blake. He would love you like no other, Elena.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“It doesn’t matter. The Blake I know will spend a lifetime earning it when he’s ready.”
“I’ll never love him the way I loved you.”
“And that is my biggest fear. That you will forget me faster than you think.”
I stared at him for a couple of seconds and then our lips touched. It was a feverish kiss and one I didn’t want to end.
“I want you to live, I want you to love again. Make love, have babies, Elena.” He touched my face gently with his thumb. “And I promise you, you’ll be happy. Just trust him.”
I squeezed his arms and they wrapped around me tighter.
Blake hurt me once, I didn’t know if I could let him in again.
We kissed for a second time and the same funny zing feeling inside my stomach started to turn. I knew what it meant.
“I’m going back?”
“It’s time princess. This is the last time I’ll visit. I love you, Elena Watkins,” he whispered inside my ear and then everything started to fade.
