HE TOOK ME back to the academy when our session was over. The flight back wasn’t as horrible as the one coming to the mountain and I couldn’t stop thinking about Cara. Who was she? And why did I get the feeling that this wasn’t even a little bit normal. Constance said it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but Blake didn’t have another name for the Rubicon inside of him.
“Don’t make me wait tomorrow like you did today.” Blake walked past me.
I wanted to throw something back but when I saw he was butt naked I shut my mouth and looked away.
Great, now his naked ass is imprinted on my mind.
I had no idea how to get used to the naked part of all this. He was right though, dragon was what I was and I had to get used to this one way or another.
Everyone stared at me as I walked back into the academy.
Stare as much as you want, idiots.
I sighed as a part of me missed the old Elena. She wasn’t so depressed and her thoughts were kinder, but then again she hadn’t lost her love of her life.
I ran two steps at a time and entered our room with a crash. Becky was sitting on her bed doing her homework and Sammy was watching some sort of reality show on the T.V.
Becky looked up as I entered. She sucked in her breath. “Elena?”
Sammy turned around too. “So how was….”
“What happened to your hair?” they cried in unison.
My hair… that was why everyone had stared. I’d forgotten. “Nothing. It changed when I shifted back today.”
Becky made her way in front of me and she pulled the elastic out of my ponytail the way Blake had earlier. My hair fell over my shoulders and down my back. The strands of rainbow hair were clutched in her hand. “It’s so beautiful.”
Sammy was at her side and they inspected it like I was some sort of an experiment gone wrong. I pulled my hair out of her palm.
“Elena, you really need to snap out of this anger phase,” Becky yelled. “It’s getting old now.”
“Becky,” Sammy warned as I entered the bathroom.
“We all lost Lucian, Sammy. She needs to deal with it.”
I flung around and charged back to her. “Deal with it?” I yelled. “How can I deal when shit like this,” I pulled the strands of rainbow hair, “keeps making an appearance? You were born in this world, Becky. Ever since I got here I’ve been clinging to the edges just trying to stay above water.”
Sammy looked at the carpet.
“Don’t tell me you know what it is I’m going through. You still have George, I’ve got nobody.”
“That’s not true. You have us.”
I gave a sadistic laugh. One I didn’t even know I was capable of. “No offence, but you are no way close to what Lucian was.”
Hurt filled her eyes. It didn’t even bother me that I was the cause of it, and I turned around to go to the bathroom.
I took a shower and thought about what I’d said to her. Still no regret came. She’d asked for it and it was time that someone put her in her place. She should really learn when to back off.
What is happening to you, Elena? the old Elena’s voice yelled inside my head. I pushed her back and closed the taps.
After I pulled on new clothes I went back into the room. Becky was gone but Sammy still sat on the couch. She looked at me.
“What?”
“That was really harsh, Elena.”
“Sammy, just spare me please.”
She jumped up from the couch. “What the hell is happening to you?”
“Let me think. Uhm, I’m a dragon, one predestined to turn evil. I lost the only person that really cared about me, and oh yeah, I really don’t want to be here anymore. You want to know more, or can I stop?”
“Don’t speak like that. Lucian died saving your life. To give up now would be a waste of his death, Elena.”
I closed my eyes and tried to push my anger aside. I didn’t want to lash out at Sammy too, but the feelings inside of me were so strong. It was as if I was still in my dragon form. All my feelings felt ten times worse and nothing my friends said made any difference.
I crawled into bed and flung my duvet over my head.
THE NEXT DAY classes were hard. I was called lazy because none of the incantations that left my mouth wanted to work.
Professor Swarch, who was teaching Enchantments for Dragons, got his ass scorched with lightning after accusing me of not trying hard enough. The class thought it was hilarious; Constance didn’t, and neither did Master Longwei.
It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I couldn’t control it, and for some reason I could wield lightning when I felt frustrated, or irritated, or really mad. It would be awesome though if it could have happened in Professor Pheizer’s class instead of Professor Swarch’s.
Sir Edward was glad that I’d transformed in his class, but the minute Cara made her appearance again they had to use magic to contain her and get Blake to calm her down. For some reason he turned out to be the only dragon that knew how to do it, and I didn’t know if I should hate that or love it.
Blake was wrong in saying that I would gain control over her the more she got out. And when the day was over and there was nothing left to keep my mind occupied, I ached for Lucian. I tried so hard to remember the sound of his voice, or the way his eyes used to light up whenever he thought something was wicked.
I hardly remembered the smell of his cologne and didn’t have anything left of him to remind me of what it was like to have him near.
Queen Margerite came the day after his funeral and took everything he owned. His parents hadn’t spoken a word to me since the day he’d died. I knew why. They were blaming me for their son’s death, and they should. It was me that had ended up leading him to it.
If I had just end my relationship with him that day at the museum he would still be alive. He wouldn’t have come back and searched for me that afternoon, and that hippogriff wouldn’t have killed him.
THE NEXT DAY I cut class, all of them, and stayed in bed. Training with Blake was a waste of my time anyway.
The past two days had gotten us nowhere, just a lot of backbiting and him calling me names and decreeing how much I thought the world owed me.
He was wrong. What he didn’t understand was that I wanted nothing from this world.
Around three my duvet got pulled off me.
“Get up!” A really pissed off Blake held my blanket in one hand.
“Blake, can you just let it go for today? She had a pretty…”
“No Samantha.” He turned his head back to me. “Get ready, Elena.”
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my robe and charged past him. “You are a real pain in the ass.”
“Yeah, that makes two of us.”
I could hear him behind me walking down the stairs, and opening the main door was no effort anymore.
I didn’t wait for him to pass through and I could hear his hand smacking against the door.
Why did he want to help me find my inner dragon so badly?
I could feel my anger rising again and it started to tear and pull my skin in all directions. I walked a bit faster and flung the second door open that exited to the Parthenon dome. My clothes started to tear as my limbs grew and I fell off the steps. A popping sound told me that Blake had transformed too.
My weight broke half the stairs and I fell head-first to the ground.
When I looked up Blake was in his dragon form right beside me, trying to help me up with his snout.
A growl escaped my mouth and I breathed fire on him. He yelled something and looked past me. I turned my head and found a gazillion students watching the two of us at the top of the stairs. The pink flame in my stomach coiled again and released another bolt of fire in their direction but Blake got in the way and blocked it with his body.
I turned around and my wings automatically started to flap at my sides. The wind slipped beneath them and my body elevated above the ground. I didn’t dare to go higher as I knew my head would start to spin again.
I could hear the flapping sound of a second pair of wings behind me and he said something I didn’t understand.
I really didn’t want to participate in his stupid session anymore; I didn’t want or need his help and I wished everybody would just leave me alone.
CARA
I FOUND MYSELF IN the air and the mutt was right above me when I awoke. I felt agitated and could sense something was very wrong with my human form, or the way they called her, Elena. She felt angry, something I didn’t like very much. Frustrated was another feeling I picked up on, and she missed someone named Lucian the same way I missed Dad. It was the same ache.
The mutt went higher and for some reason I didn’t want to follow him. Was it him that had caused all of these emotions running through my human form?
I wished I knew what was behind all of this, and at that exact moment flashes of another life paged through my mind. I was right, it wasn’t Dad that she missed. She didn’t even think about him. It was somebody else: This Lucian, he was another human.
I watched how he’d died, stung by a hippogriff. A vague memory of what Momma had told me long ago about the hippogriffs emerged. They were supposed to be extinct.
Then a flash of that rodent I’d flicked off the mountain made his appearance. So it was him that had made her so angry.
My human’s reflection in the mirror came next. She had the most beautiful green eyes and was gorgeous. The one she longed for made her feel like that on a daily basis and the feeling of her missing him again jolted through my chest.
A scene of a Wyvern tying her down to a boulder with shackles came next. It made me angry and I realized it was the day I had woken up. Her anger and helplessness had awoken me.
“Don’t worry baby, Cara is here now,” I said softly and charged at the mutt in front of me.
I blew fire on his ass, something he hadn’t expected. When a second bolt of lightning blew off him, I realized nothing seemed to penetrate the shield he protected himself with.
I could feel some of Elena’s anger disappearing but for some reason mine still stayed.
He flew and blocked all the way back to the mountains and landed.
I descended and landed a couple of minutes after him. I found the rodent from yesterday in the mutt’s place. His arms were enflamed with pink light. He had a dark gaze in his eyes as he stared at me.
“Enough!” he roared.
“I’ll say when it’s enough. You think you can bully her as much as you want and get away with it. I’m in control now.”
“So you’ve finally met Elena. She’s not the innocent victim you think she is, Cara. I’m trying to help her deal with you. So if you want to come out more, you’ll back off.”
His words took me by surprise and I had to admit, I hadn’t expected him to say something like that.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you helping her? From what she’s shown me you don’t seem like the type that would help her at all.”
“We had our differences in the past, but now that I’m a hundred percent sure what she is…”
“You benefit from this, don’t you?”
“Not in the way you think. Is it safe to subdue my fire?”
“Fine.” I gave in thinking if the mutt was telling the truth then I might be getting more time to be free.
His flames grew less and faded into nothing. He pulled on a robe to cover his body and went to sit by a tree.
I lay down in front of him. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Cover your body with a garment.”
A grin spread over his face. “Elena isn’t used to naked bodies and I don’t know when she will emerge again.”
“She’s what?”
“Exactly my point,” he said and he lit up something that smelled disgusting.
“What is that?” I tried to get the stench out of my nose with a couple of snorts and sneezes.
“I’m putting it out. Just don’t throw another hissy fit, okay.” He squashed the white twig hard against the ground and I watched as it broke into tiny pieces. “Tell me about yourself, what’s the last thing you remember about your dragon life?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Cara, I’m not the enemy. I’m only trying to help.”
“Fine,” I said. “Not much, Momma and Papa seem to be the only thing I recall.”
“Who were they?”
“I can’t remember what they called themselves.”
“Did they live on this side?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Did you see other dragons when you grew up?”
“You want me to light up your ass again?”
“Your fire doesn’t harm me Cara. I told you before, I’m exactly like you.”
“I doubt it. I’m sure I’m prettier than you.”
He chuckled.
I fell down on my paws. His questions stirred up so many things in my head that it felt as if they now swam around making me feel like I was going to drown. I closed my eyes and thought about Papa again. I couldn’t remember what his human form looked like. Momma and he were mostly in their dragon forms around me and I couldn’t recall any other dragons either.
ELENA
I COULD FEEL CARA taking over as I took off from the ground. This time was different though. I didn’t black out and was left with my thoughts. Memories of Lucian and of Blake forcing me into this afternoon’s training twirled inside my mind.
Then something else happened: it felt more or less like Cara could feel my emotion and I could feel hers. She was pining over Dad the way I pined for Lucian.
How much she must have missed him and what a shock it must have been to her, waking up and finding him no longer there. Our memories entwined with one another, as mine become hers and vice versa. It was a silent conversation between two strangers that would never be able to be together in the same room.
I started to see through her eyes but it was more or less the same as the pond inside the Sacred Cavern. I wasn’t looking directly through her eyes but saw what she did through a memory. She was setting Blake’s dragon ass on fire, heck she gave him some of everything, but I had to admit, Blake was really good. He protected himself with an invisible shield and blocked every single one of her blows.
Even when he charged for the mountain, the bolts he didn’t dive away from he blocked instead.
He landed and she followed his lead.
I looked away when she landed too as Blake was back in his human form with both his arms in flames without a shred of clothes.
There was anger in his voice as he spoke to her, and it faded away leaving me with my thoughts again.
I closed my eyes thinking about all the things in my head. When I felt a soft, cool breeze against my skin, I opened them again.
I found Blake leaning against the tree with his eyes closed. He wore his robe again.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Elena?”
I nodded and got the urge to stretch. I stood on all fours and my hind legs felt stiffer than the front ones. Before I realized what I’d done, my back arched and my butt moved towards the heavens.
That felt so good.
I found Blake’s eyes on me and he grinned as he looked away. “So that’s what it looks like when dragons stretch.”
I flopped on the floor again and gave him a sarcastic gurgle.
“Elena, you should deal with your anger.”
“How do you think I should do that, Freud?”
“See the Viden.”
“Oh please, she treats me just as badly…” I wanted to say “as you do”, but realized that Blake had actually gone out of his way to try and help me this time. He could’ve left me in that bed, but he hadn’t.
“I know she’s not an easy creature, but I also know she really wants to help you, Elena.”
“Why, now that I’m somebody special in her little black book?”
He squinted. “You have a prophecy?”
I looked away. “No. It’s just a saying,” I lied. I could tell by the look on his face he knew that I was keeping something from him. It wouldn’t help anyway as he wouldn’t know what any of it meant.
“Then talk to me.”
“You’re not very far from the Viden, Blake. I still don’t know why it is you are so eager to help me.”
“Because I benefit from it, Elena.”
“In what way?” Irritation started to rise up again. I knew he wouldn’t do this out of the kindness of his own heart. There must always be something in it for Blake, before Blake does anything for somebody else.
“When the time comes I’ll tell you. For now, just do as I say.”
“Urgh, you are so arrogant.” I got up and wanted to leave but the minute I came close to the edge my head started to spin again.
Blake chuckled behind me. “That height thing must really suck, huh?”
“Shut up,” I said and turned my back on the view and lay down again.
He got up. “Just because you are so rude, I think I’m going to go.” He pulled his robe off and shifted back into his dragon form again.
“You’re going to leave me here?”
He didn’t answer as he hauled himself off the mountain, and I realized that I’d just gotten my answer.
I shook my big head. Un-freakin-believable
