IT WAS DARK but I could hear things going on around me. The clatter of a pan and Julia’s voice apologizing to Constance.
I knew where I was without having to open my eyes. The pain I’d felt the day I claimed Blake was gone. I took a deep breath and struggled to open my eyes.
“I think she’s coming to,” a male voice said. It was Sir Robert.
“Elena, can you hear me?” Lucian’s mom asked.
“Give her some time. She’ll get out of this soon.” I heard Constance putting them at ease. Her hand touched my head. “At least the fever broke.”
My eyes opened slightly, I could see the outlines of a bunch of people around my bed.
“Will she be okay?” Becky asked.
“Just give her time. She’ll be fine.”
“What happened?” I croaked.
“My stupid brother. He’s such a coward,” Sammy sulked through a blocked nose.
“He couldn’t control it, Samantha,” Sir Robert spoke softly. “It needed to happen.”
“How do you feel?” Becky asked.
“Like I exploded and was brought back to life.”
“Yeah, sounds a lot like mine,” Becky answered.
“Wait, you went through this too?” I opened my eyes more but my head ached and spun like a whirlwind. I closed them again as my entire face pulled at the pain.
“Here, let me help.” Constance’s hands rubbed my temples softly. At first I thought she’d lost her magic touch when nothing happened, but when the swirling started to calm down and the pain started to disappear, it felt amazing.
“King Caleb is trying to make your claim against Blake unofficial. He’s saying you are a dragon and you can’t be his rider.” Becky sounded angry. “He’s trying to get Blake to become Arianna’s dragon since you interfered.”
“That won’t happen.” Constance eased her worries. “Blake is the Rubicon. Arianna won’t be able to control him.”
“What were you thinking, Elena?” Sammy said.
“The claim was legit. My foretelling was exactly that. I had to claim Blake in order for the truth to be revealed. King Albert and Queen Catherine are my parents.”
Everyone gasped and I opened my eyes. Becky was sitting at the left side of my bed. Right next to me, Constance’s eyes looked worried. Her eyebrows knitted together. Julia froze in one spot right in front of my bed. Queen Margerite looked at the ground and on my right were Sammy and her father. Didn’t Cheng tell them? Urgh, my evil twin.
“I knew it,” Sir Robert said.
“Why didn’t Cheng tell us?” Constance asked.
“Because evil Elena made him promise not to. I did horrible things to that dragon.”
“Which I’m sure he will forgive, Elena.” Constance eased my worries.
“What is it Margerite?”
“She would’ve told me,” Queen Margerite looked at him. “Katie was my best friend…”
“They were in danger during that time, Margerite, they wouldn’t have.” Constance carried on rubbing my temples.
The Queen was my mom’s best friend?
“She’s a dragon, how is that even possible?”
“Easy,” I said. “I was sick and Tanya sacrificed Cara, her Thunderlight, to save my life.”
They all looked at me and then back at one another. Queen Margerite closed her eyes. “She didn’t betray them, she sacrificed her child to save her sister’s. There is no greater love.”
“She just left you?” Constance asked, shocked.
“She was a Chromatic dragon. She said that my dad, I mean Herbert, Jako, whatever his name was, kept moving to all the big cities and she couldn’t turn into herself. She couldn’t stand it anymore and when my mom died, she was free to go back to Paegeia, so she left.”
“Jako raised you?” Sir Robert asked.
I nodded as I turned my gaze to his. He looked to the ground and hurt pulled all his face muscles downward. “He asked me to tell you that he never doubted your loyalty. He knew that you weren’t the one, but that Tanya got to my mom and she forced my father not to tell you.”
Sir Robert looked up and stared at me.
“He also regretted that he never told you. I saw it in his eyes. He told me that you would’ve stayed.”
Tears welled up in Sir Robert’s hazelnut eyes.
“I told him that Blake needed you more.”
He closed his eyes and started to shake with tears and silent sobs.
Sammy hugged her father.
“It’s okay, my father loved you.” And he still does, but I’d promised not to tell him that.
“That’s why he sent me away that night? The night of the Creepers.” Sir Robert asked.
“He never doubted you.”
“Thank you, Elena. Now I know what he was thinking.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Whatever you need, I’ll be there.” He put his fist on his chest and bowed his head.
“Oh shit,” Becky said. “You want to tell me you’re a princess?”
We all started to laugh as she just stared at me with huge shocked and surprised eyes.
“I guess I am, but I’m not your typical princess. I have no fortune.” All of them laughed again, Queen Margerite the loudest.
“You are like Katie in so many ways, Elena. She used to make jokes like you, no matter how difficult the situation was. She used to say that every cloud has a silver lining, and always saw the good when no one else could.”
“Yip, that’s Elena all right,” Sammy chirped and we laughed again.
“So where is that dragon of mine?”
Everyone fell silent.
Oh shit, what did he do now?
“He got up two hours after the incident and he left. We haven’t heard or seen him since.”
“Wait, how long was I out?”
“Two weeks.”
My eyes rose. “Two weeks!”
“Calm down, Elena.” Constance rested her hand on my shoulder as I tried to get up. “You need your rest.”
“May I speak with the princess before she sleeps?” King Helmut walked into the infirmary. Everyone nodded but he waited for Constance’s approval. She finally nodded and I had to say goodbye to everyone, including Sir Robert.
King Helmut took Sir Robert’s spot.
“How are you doing? I didn’t see you much during Christmas,” I asked.
“I miss him, Elena.”
“I know the feeling.” I wished that I could tell him about our time spent together, but I would sound like a nutty person.
His hand disappeared inside his jacket. “Your father…” he took his hand out and it was closed in a fist. “There wasn’t enough space for everyone inside the elevator. The door didn’t want to close and I wanted to get out, but your father pushed me back and shoved this inside my hand.” He opened up his fist and two beautiful matching rings lay inside his palm. “He hugged me once and said, “Keep these, until the right time comes. You’ll know what to do with them.” The door had almost closed when the entire floor exploded. We all crashed to the ground and I made a run for it. I thought my dragon was dead and I had just lost your father. He was one of my best friends, Elena. He saved my life. I think he wanted you to have these.”
He took my hand softly and dropped the two rings inside my palm. They sparkled and looked brand new. “Caleb believes you’re still a dragon. He’ll try to cloud everyone’s mind, even the Ancients. There will be an investigation, and I’m not going to lie to you, Elena, it’s going to be hard. No human has ever gotten past the Wall without the Wall incinerating them, but if you left inside of a dragon, it might have worked.”
“You heard all of that?”
“Enhanced hearing. If you think you’ve got it bad now, wait until you get part of his essence. It’s ten times worse.”
I smiled, but inside I was dreading the outcome of all of this. Typical, this was just my luck. Couldn’t my father have left a note with someone else besides Tanya? I gasped. “They can ask Tanya, she will tell them everything.”
“I’m already on it, Elena. They should be able to strike up a deal with the Khumutsi?” he asked the name and I nodded.
“Cheng told you about him?”
He nodded. “He also told me that he wanted Cheng badly.”
“What about Cheng, he can also verify this? He spoke to Tanya.”
“He will be questioned, but Caleb will say that the two of you are in on it together.”
“It’s not true.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, or prove who you are. I saw it the first time I laid eyes on you inside that museum. You are their child, anyone that can’t see that, is a fool.”
“King Caleb can’t.”
“You’re wrong. It’s why he’s fighting against it. I’ve got a funny feeling that he is afraid. Scared that he would lose everything. He’s changed for the worst, Elena. Wars sometimes leave scars, and the last one left a huge one that never healed. He is going to find a way to strip you of your birthright, but I promise you, Margerite and I will stay by your side, no matter what they say.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “Thank you. I know that must be really hard for you to say after what I’ve done.”
“What?” he frowned.
“If Lucian didn’t love me, he would’ve never come back for me that day and he would still be alive.”
“Elena,” he sighed. “Lucian died the way he wanted to. He died saving the woman he loved, and protecting the princess of Paegeia. The thing that hurts the most is that he never realized that he’d fulfilled both of his dreams before it was too late.”
I shook my head and bit the lower part of my lip. “He knew. Tanya told me that he guessed it on his first try. He just blurted out my name and she was free to tell him. It was why he came back.”
Silence lingered around us as we just stared at one another.
“Thank you for sharing that with me.” He smiled softly but the sadness in his eyes didn’t make it a genuine smile. “He died for what he believed in. I will always miss him, both of them. But they gave me so much joy and made me so proud of them in their short lives. It will keep me human for the rest of mine.” He got up and kissed me softly on my head, just like my dad, I mean Herbert, used to do when I was smaller. “Sleep tight, princess. You’re going to need it.”
I closed my eyes and I heard his footsteps exiting the infirmary.
