I WALKED PAST them, while my heart was hammering. Why Blake still had this effect on me was beyond my knowledge. A few months back he’d made it perfectly clear I was no match for Tabitha.
He was such an idiot, and I had no idea what I’d seen in him. None of it had been real; it’d been just one big act.
A hand grabbed me tightly around the arm, and my eyes shifted to it.
I slowly raised my head to look at him.
He was still kissing Tabitha, but his ugly paw was around my arm. What was his problem?
He finally broke the kiss, brushing her cheek softly with his thumb. When she saw me, she jumped slightly but her surprised, parted lips turned into a thin line, and her nostrils widened slightly.
He turned his head, staring straight at me with his narrowed peacock blues.
“Now, a word,” he said with his jaw muscles pumping.
He was so arrogant. Prick.
“You have no right to speak to my father the way you did the other day.” He almost spat the words at me.
I started to laugh, and I could see it was seriously annoying him.
“I don’t need a babysitter! Or a rider for that matter.”
This piece of information was clearly making Tabitha glow inside.
“You think I want to be your rider? To be stuck with this fucked-up bond or whatever it is we share? I –” I poked him hard, but he stood his ground. “– didn’t run away like a coward. I faced whatever I had to face, and dealt with my responsibilities. You need to decide what you are going to do, because to be honest, I’m sick and tired of this game you’re playing, tired of your whining, just tired of everything, Blake. So either get that ego of yours in check and own up to your responsibilities or get the fuck away from me, as far as possible, where I don’t have to pay for the shit you get yourself into whenever you can’t keep yourself under control. If you think I did that for you, you better think again pal.”
I could see he wanted to say something else.
“Matter is closed. If you don’t like it, then leave.”
He grunted softly then cussed in Latin. How I knew it was Latin was hard to explain, but it sounded different, like a higher dialect of English.
My insides wanted to explode; he was the only one who had that effect on me. He knew just what buttons to push, but I kept my pose as I walked up the stairs; I wouldn’t show him how I truly felt.
When I entered my room – a place which no dragon’s enhanced hearing could penetrate – I let out a frustrated scream.
Four pairs of eyes stared at me from the couch in the corner.
Becky turned the TV down. “Are you okay?”
George and Dean both stared, while Sammy was already making her way to the door.
She wrapped her arms around me. “What happened, did the Council give you anything, did they say anything?”
I huffed. “This is not a Council matter. Your brother decided to come back and had some words about my little ordeal with your father. He is so freaking arrogant, do you know that?”
“Wait, my brother is back?” she asked with a slight change in her tone.
“Yes, he’s never going to change. It’s been almost three months since I claimed him, and he still refuses to accept me as a rider.”
I shook my head at Becky. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
“Don’t you dare say that.”
George breathed out loud. “Give him time. I promise you he is going to be pretty sorry when that time comes.”
“When, George, in two years, three? They don’t even know if this stupid bracelet works.”
“What?” Becky had that worried look on her face that the others mirrored.
“Nobody’s shared this messed-up bond we have before. So they couldn’t try it out on anyone. It’s just hopeful dreams. The only thing they said was that they got it at the Black Market, or I assume it’s from the Black Market. I hate this, Becky.” I sat on the edge of my bed with my head in my hands, sounding more defeated than I wanted to let on.
The bed shifted and I could feel her presence right beside me. “He is back. He is going to be in every class with you, learning. Believe me, as much as he is going to protest, he will be forced.”
I gave her my “unbelievable” laugh and she gave me her “not impressed” glare.
“Who is going to force him? Half the professors are shit scared of him. I can’t, because he hates my guts, and I’m the last person he would ever listen to.”
“I know it sounds like a hopeless case. I’ve been there, but it’s not.”
“And if this doesn’t work?” I dangled my bracelet in her face, ignoring her last statement, as she hadn’t dealt with this for three bloody months. “What then? I just have to take the beatings with him? You saw how long they took to heal. I walked for weeks with the pain, and the scars are still there.”
She didn’t say anything, just stared at me with as much compassion as possible.
“I just don’t know anymore.”
“Don’t give up,” Sammy begged. “I’ll speak to him if you want me to.”
“No. I can do my own dirty work.”
“C’mon, he’s my brother, and I happen to love you both. I know he’s an arrogant bastard, but I still have a different connection with him.”
I shook my head. “I know you mean well, but I’ll deal with him my own way. I’ll try harder, ask for advice if that’s what it takes. But I refuse to wait for him for years.” I headed straight for the bathroom.
“I’m going to go say hi.” Sammy spoke softly but I could hear it through the door, as if she’d said it directly in my face.
The bracelet wasn’t shining so much anymore; only a faint glow came from it.
Well at least one good thing would come from this: It would let me know when the idiot was near.
I STAYED INSIDE my room until dinner time. I even tried to read my mother’s journal again, but I couldn’t get that stupid conversation and image of what a dick Blake was out of my head.
I couldn’t believe that I’d told him that I loved him at one time. Whatever that was, that feeling was long gone and the only thing that remained was the same way he felt about me.
I really didn’t want to share this bond with him and wished it was transferable.
Around seven-thirty, Becky and Sammy entered the room, Sammy carrying a silver dish. “Chef asked me to give this to you.”
I smiled as she put it down on my nightstand. “Thanks.”
When I picked up the lid it revealed a plate of coq-au-vin. One of my favorite meals.
I dug in as Sammy couldn’t stop speaking about her brother. “He is in the impasse stage. I just know it. He’s stuck in between good and evil.”
“Yay me!”
“Elena.” She stared at me and seemed to want to say something, but instead shook her head.
She was frustrated with this entire ordeal. Just like I was. Still, impasse stage or not, I had to make some kind of deal with him to just co-operate, and I had no idea how on earth I was going to do that.
We went to bed after our favorite teen soap, Fire-Frost.
It was a new series and reminded me a bit of Teen Wolf, but this one was about shape-shifting panthers. The main character was to die for, and gave Blake a run for his money.
“The day you meet him,” Sammy said, “I’m so there.”
“Me too,” Becky chirped.
“You have George,” Sammy said with a slight smirk on her face.
“And you have Dean. Besides, I’ll just tell George to stay behind.”
I couldn’t believe she’d just said that. “Urgh, I hate it when you do that.” I got up.
“It was a joke,” Becky said in a high-pitched tone with a smile.
“Still, you know he’ll do anything for you, and you still take advantage of it.”
“I don’t.”
I gave her the raised eyebrow, and it got her all riled up. “You will never understand anything.” Becky got up and left for the bathroom.
She was wrong, I did.
She wasn’t the one who’d seen the entire picture. She would never own up to that as she was madly in love with George, even if it was all just a big love spell to him.
I found Sammy watching me with parted lips and slightly narrowed eyes.
“What?”
“That was uncalled for.”
“Whatever.” I got up and crawled into bed.
I closed my eyes and could still hear them scurrying around in the room as they got ready for bed.
I hated arguing or disagreeing with them, but sometimes they just didn’t truly understand what I was going through.
MY BRACELET SPARKLED again as I neared the cafeteria the next morning.
The idiot was near.
The entire cafeteria was filled with Dragonians and their dragons It was that time again: Warbel tryouts. I didn’t even go to the opening this year, as one: I had a really bad experience the last time, and two: they held it during the time that I was still being held hostage by Stanley and his gang trying to force Paegeia down my throat.
Blake was sitting at a table with Tabitha. Our eyes met for a second and I could feel the hatred he had for me behind those peacock blues. How on earth was he ever going to like me? It had to be a spell. I turned away and ignored him completely, grabbing my bowl of oatmeal with a side plate of fruit.
“Did you enjoy your dinner last night?”
“I did, thanks Chef.”
He cocked his head at the whiteboard next to the buffet on the wall. “See my riddle?”
“Nope, and not going to until certain girls behave,” I joked.
He roared with laughter as I took my tray and went to Becky and Sammy’s table.
We stayed until the first bell rang then made our way to Professor Pheizer’s class.
She was in her element when she saw Blake. He didn’t share her enthusiasm, but it still didn’t stop her from giving him a warm welcome back.
“So, today I was thinking of starting my lecture with Dragon Oaths.” Her eyes widened and a huge grin was plastered on her face.
It made half of the class snicker, George in particular, but the other half, the ones who shared Blake and Tabitha’s mood, grunted slightly.
“So who can tell me what the difference is between a dragon’s promise and a dragon’s oath?”
“Is there a difference?” I spoke out of turn as I remembered that very first promise Blake had made when I went into the Sacred Cavern. But I knew the answer. Ever since I’d gotten my memories back from the stories Dad used to tell me when I was little, I knew there was.
She smiled. “There is a huge difference.”
Riley’s hand shot the highest and half the class slumped back in their chairs and rolled their eyes. Of course the know-it-all would have the answer.
“Riley?” Professor Pheizer asked.
“A dragon’s promise can be easily broken, but with a dragon’s oath, they would actually go through physical pain if they tried to break it, right?” She stared at Vivienne, her Night-Villain’s human form, sitting right next to her.
The dark head nodded.
“That is correct,” Professor Pheizer said in her over-excited tone. “George, why is a dragon’s oath so sacred?”
George chuckled. “Because it’s something we almost never do.”
Becky laughed the hardest.
“Becky, please share.”
“A dragon’s oath from him?” She joked too as I knew he had given his dragon oath plenty of times.
“I’m serious, guys,” she said. “Blake, you seem to know all the strangeness in dragons, tell us why dragon oaths are so sacred, why do you creatures hurt so much when you break one?”
“Because it’s how it is. To give a dragon’s oath is to swear with your entire existence, what you promise will be, if not, you wither in pain for all eternity.” He spoke in rhyme and it reminded me of the poems in my head.
Professor Pheizer must have thought about that too, as she gave him a knowing, soft grin. The memory of his poem melting her away in that same chair was definitely evident on her face.
But Blake’s tone was dull. “Something that will never leave my lips. That is a promise,” he said through a huge grin.
Buttons!
She smiled. “Thank goodness that wasn’t a dragon’s oath.”
Becky had to suppress her laughter as Tabitha glared at Professor Pheizer.
“Oh, I’ll say it if you want me to, as it means nothing to me.”
“Don’t Blake. I’m sure you would like to say it one day to that beautiful girl sitting next to you, and then the regret of this day is going to bite you in the butt.”
Tabitha smiled, and Blake’s lips curled slightly.
I didn’t like that for some reason, but I knew Professor Pheizer wasn’t an idiot.
She didn’t want him to make that oath, even though he would never give me his dragon oath, he could still give it to Tabitha.
The lecture went on about how sacred and strong dragon oaths were. In the old days they used to have a ceremony once a month where dragons could give their oath in front of hundreds of people. It was also something that’d died out when the Creepers consumed Etan, and oaths had become as rare as dents. Even though there were two in this classroom.
When the bell finally rang everyone scattered.
I let Blake and Tabitha leave first and was one of the last students to leave Professor Pheizer’s class.
“Elena, can I please have a word?” she asked.
I lowered my backpack and almost dragged it behind me, so un-princess like.
I smiled as I reached her and she mirrored me with a much kinder and warmer smile.
“I know you are going through a very difficult time and I said those words –”
“Professor, you don’t have to explain it to me.”
“Let me finish.” She gave me the eye with a soft curve at the lips. “I didn’t want him to say it, as the right time will come when he’ll really want to say it, and not to Tabitha.”
I huffed. “It really doesn’t matter to me that much.”
“It should. He is your dent. The boy that is going to literally want to give you the moon and the stars, the one that is going to protect you for the rest of your life.”
I wanted to protest as I knew that was so not going to ever happen. It made me think back to my father’s, Herbert’s, stories. He told me that too, and if it wasn’t for Cheng’s ability to show them to me, bless his heart, I would still not have remembered them. But they were all wrong.
“Don’t. It always happens when the right time comes. You just need to be patient.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
“Be patient. Your bond was supposed to have been made a long time ago.”
I didn’t argue as I really didn’t want to speak about this anymore. I didn’t like anything the dent stood for.
So I took a deep breath and nodded.
“Now go, before you miss the second bell.”
I opened her door and found Sammy and Dean waiting for me. Becky and George were a few paces in front, walking side by side.
“What was that about?” Sammy asked, and I scrunched up my nose to tell her it was nothing.
Dragon promises or oaths made no difference to me as I knew the day one left Blake’s mouth was the day that he wasn’t going to be the same anymore.
