THE NEXT FEW weeks were a constant battle between Blake and I. We had so many words with one another, and each time he tried to go for me – hurting me was the number one priority – the jolt in my arm would come back and I could protect myself from his bad temper.
It made him more furious but he never transformed as he knew that I would have access to my abilities then, and nothing he could do would hurt me.
I thought that was exactly what they’d meant by calling it the impasse stage. The riders did have some way to protect themselves from their dragons until the bond was made, or the dent.
He wanted me dead so badly so he could be free, but the bond didn’t allow it. He was harmless to me.
The Rubicon was harmless to an insignificant little human girl like me. If I was still a Rubicon it would’ve made me furious too.
I actually used that last statement so many times, I knew I was lowering myself to his standard, and although many told me to walk away, Blake wasn’t the type who would let me.
How long is this going to last?
Master Longwei actually had to intervene the other day in the cafeteria.
It’d been lunchtime and I’d plopped down on my pillow right next to Becky and George.
“I’m not going to even ask where you were,” Becky joked.
“I’m not going to tell, either.” I smiled.
“Longbottoms again?”
“Nope.”
“Urgh.”
“Here we go,” George said, and my entire body slumped. “Dude, seriously, give it up man.”
“George, stay out of this.” Blake leaned on the table and stared straight at me.
“What, you miss me that much already?” I joked.
“Never in a million years.” He was always so serious. It was so stupid.
“Then what do you want?”
“Elena, just ignore him,” Sammy said.
“You know what I want. Please,” Blake asked.
My gaze turned toward him. He’d never begged me before, well only that night when he’d wanted me to kill him.
“Blake, stop it!” Sammy yelled at him.
“Stay out of this, Samantha.” He glared at her then turn his head back at me. “You know what the dent is, Elena, please.”
“Elena, don’t do it,” George said.
“Shut the fuck up!” Blake barked at him.
“It’s not what you think, idiot,” George said back through gritted teeth.
“Then explain it to me, please, because there is never going to be a time that I will want Elena more than anything else.”
“Don’t ask me to explain it to you. Be patient.” George’s tone was soft. You would never know that he was a Moon-Bolt, a Chromatic dragon.
Still, I couldn’t do this anymore, but I knew I couldn’t free him either. So, I got up and made to leave.
“No.” He grabbed my hand. “Say it. Now!”
“Fine,” I yelled at him. “You want to hear it—”
The words left George’s mouth so fast and an invisible contraption slapped over my mouth. I couldn’t speak.
Chaos broke out as I looked at George, clutching my mouth to break the spell, and Blake grabbed him.
Becky yelped from shock as they went for each other while I tried desperately to free myself from not being able to speak.
Becky tried to help George, and it felt as if everything went into slow motion as Blake lifted his arm and an invisible force threw Becky in the air.
My heart hammered and the same jolt rushed up my arm, but this time it spread to my entire body.
I lifted both arms as if I was going to grab Becky in the air, and to my surprise she stopped.
I lowered her to the ground gently, her eyes huge, and when she was safe, unharmed, I concentrated on Blake.
I pushed him away from George just as he was about to throw another punch, and his back was against the wall in a flash. An umph left him as he collided with the wall, but to my surprise it still held.
I wanted to yell but my mouth was still clamped shut.
“Enough!” Master Longwei’s voice filled the cafeteria.
At that moment the spell over my lips disappeared.
He took all four of us to his office and gave us the biggest scolding of our lives.
Blake was never going to yield, and even though George did speak to me that day, telling me that I could never, ever do that again, it didn’t change the way I felt about everything.
He didn’t tell me anything about what the bond was. Master Longwei was right about how a dragon that was part of a dent would never reveal what the bond really consisted of, and I couldn’t stop thinking that George had no idea what caused his affection toward Becky at all.
I wished that I could say that it was the breaking point and that Blake changed after that, but he didn’t.
He ignored me for so many weeks that buying the stupid bike was all I could think of.
It was where I’d been the day of the entire cafeteria incident.
Monique had given me Andy’s number and I had gone to see him. There was the most beautiful black number that he said Blake used to have his eye on, but that it had been on the floor for a long time, as it was a bit pricy and nobody could really afford it. I told him to wait till I was certain, and yesterday I’d made the call and bought the damn thing.
THIS AFTERNOON ANDY would deliver the bike. My stomach was in knots. Monique was sure that it would work, but now that I’d bought the damn thing and I knew it was on its way, I was nervous as hell.
He said that he would drop it off after school, a delivery straight from the bike shop to the Academy with a beautiful bow and a card with Blake’s name on it.
The entire ordeal sounded so stupid now.
“Okay, out with it,” Becky said.
We were having lunch, and I’d hardly touched my food.
“It’s nothing.” I stood up. “I need to make a call.”
I had to cancel this order before Andy brought the stupid bike here. What had I been thinking? I should have noticed the way Jimmy had reacted; he knew Blake better than Monique. He used to play at Longbottoms so many times, and the way Jimmy laughed that day should’ve told me that.
“Elena.” Blake’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and I closed my eyes as a bike key dangled from his fingers. “What is this?”
“What do you think it is?”
He chuckled as he walked closer and stroked his face hard.
Okay, so maybe Monique hadn’t been wrong.
A small curve around his mouth appeared. “You think you can buy my affection?”
Shit. “You’re not giving me any options here.”
“I don’t want to be your dragon, or anybody’s dragon. Why can’t you get that?” he roared.
“We have no choice. We still have to fulfill our destiny. We have to free the people of Etan.” I didn’t know why I’d just said that. I hadn’t intended to but I had to say something to make him try.
“They can rot in Etan for all I care,” he spat in my face and turned around right after he threw the key back at me. “My affection can’t be bought.”
I picked up the key and plenty of eyes were staring at me, my friends included.
George got up. “Okay, what did you buy him?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was stupid, I know.”
George smiled. “If it’s what I think it is, that wasn’t easy for him at all.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t work.”
“Elena.” Master Longwei’s voice came from down the hall. He had a slight grin.
Oh man, how many people heard about this.
“You need to get that distraction back to Andy’s shop or ask someone to come and fetch it. My courtyard is filled with students and a couple of the professors.”
George smiled and rushed to the courtyard.
“A bike?” Master Longwei had a raised eyebrow.
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You must be patient and not bestow gifts on him that he doesn’t deserve.”
“Yeah, he made that pretty clear about how his affection cannot be bought.”
A bigger ignore came after that. He didn’t treat me like vermin anymore, he didn’t treat me like anything. It was as if I didn’t exist at all.
That bike had been a stupid idea and next time I went to see Monique I would tell her just how bad it was.
THE COUNCIL WANTED to see me again, and Sir Robert went with me. He was back at my side whenever the Council wanted to meet.
“You bought him a Ducati?” he asked with a hint of a smile.
“Don’t look at me like that; it was stupid, I know.”
“It’s sweet, and it shows me that you would do anything in order for him to succumb. I just think it was the wrong time. Blake has eyed that specific bike for a long time.”
“Then why didn’t he just take it?”
“Because it came from you.”
“Wait, how do you even know about this?”
He chuckled. “Andy phoned me after he went to pick up the bike from Dragonia. It’s in a safe place for now, until the manor is completely done.”
“When will the manor be finished?”
“A couple of weeks, give or take.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s fast.”
“It’s almost ready.” His grin was huge. “It’s really something.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” I said as we walked up the stairs that led to the city hall in Tith.
Sir Robert opened the door of the hall and we found a small group of Council members. Constance was there, along with Master Longwei and the two kings.
Sir Robert and I each took a chair right at one of the tables. It was a different set-up, a long, oblong table, and I didn’t like it that Irene was sitting next to Master Longwei.
I didn’t know what she was doing here.
“Good day, princess, Sir Robert,” King Helmut addressed the meeting. “We have summoned you here today, Elena to speak to you about a different matter.”
King Helmut was confident, and everything I wished I was when I was in front of these people.
“Irene has brought to my attention that she is feeling something pulling her toward your foretelling.”
I squinted. “My foretelling?”
“The one concerning you and Blake. Freeing the people of Etan.”
“Oh, I see. That one.” I pinched my nose and sniffed lightly. I could hear Stan’s voice in my head that it wasn’t princess-like but I didn’t care. It wasn’t my responsibility alone to make that foretelling turn red. It was my dragon’s too, and if he didn’t want to succumb then what the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn’t force him.
“What is happening with Blake?”
“He’s the Rubicon, and doesn’t believe that he needs a rider, so he’s not anywhere near where he needs to be.”
“Well, the Ancients want you to try harder. Blake needs to help you fulfil this foretelling and if not, I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you what is at stake here.”
I shook my head.
“How long do we have?”
“Just try your best.”
The meeting ended, that was it, and we left. They seriously couldn’t have sent me an email or a crow?
To make matters worse, it was now my responsibility to find a way to make him co-operate, as if that was ever going to happen. I didn’t even know where to start with operation ‘Getting Blake Leaf to Join Team Elena.’ All I knew was that everyone was counting on me, and they had just added the freedom of Etan to my already weighty shoulders. As if they didn’t carry enough already.
Sir Robert and I went our separate ways as we took one of the elevators back to Elm. Thankfully, the carriage ride that waited for Constance, me and Master Longwei didn’t take very long.
“Elena,” Master Longwei called my name as I was looking down at the scenery from the carriage window.
“Irene only felt something. It could still be months, even a year before Etan is lost to us.”
A faint smile appeared on my lips. That was why King Helmut couldn’t tell me the exact period of time I had to try to get Blake over on my side.
“You sure?”
“With a foretelling as big as this one, she usually gives plenty of notice.”
“Thanks.”
“But don’t take the Ancients’ warning lightly. He needs to dent. The faster the better.”
FOR DAYS I considered what the Council had asked of me. The task they’d bestowed upon me, to find ways for Blake to pick up his responsibility. Neither Master Longwei nor Sir Robert liked it, but they were also worried about what it was Irene had started to feel. I hadn’t thought our Destiny would’ve had a time frame as well.
It made my job so much harder, but then again, when the time came, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It would mean that I hadn’t broken my promise, but yesterday’s crow from my Pappi, told me that they were watching me from under Master Longwei’s nose.
I didn’t have any more choices, but one more idea.
Lately, he’d seem to do whatever Tabitha wanted. A part of me thought that he had dented, but with his girlfriend. He wasn’t as mean to her anymore and they been inseparable since he’d returned.
I still had my doubts about this one too, but I had to try everything that was in my power for him to agree to become my dragon.
I knew if I could get Tabitha on my side then he might change his mind somehow.
I found her in the cafeteria, alone, which was a miracle in itself, and dropped down onto the pillow next to her.
She was having a conversation with one of her friends and merely stared at me with a raised eyebrow and slightly parted lips.
“Can I please have a word in private with you?”
“Why would I ever want to speak to you?”
“Enough, Tabitha,” I begged. “I never wanted this, but it happened.”
She scrutinized at me.
“I don’t want him like that, okay. I just need him because the Council is breathing down my neck because of what it is we have to do. Irene is feeling that it’s almost time for our foretelling to be put into action.” I sighed. I didn’t want to do this but I had no choice. “Don’t you want to free the people of Etan?”
She seemed downright guilty when I asked her that.
“I just need his dragon form, that’s it. I promise I will stay out of both your way. I don’t want him like that.”
She was contemplating this. I could see it in her face.
“I know what the dent is, okay, I’m not stupid, and if you think that I’m okay with enslaving someone, putting a spell on them, then you have no idea who I am.”
She stared straight into my eyes. “You promise?” she said.
“On my mother’s grave.”
“Fine, what do you want me to do?”
“Speak to him. Tell him that I don’t want him like that, since that seems to be the problem he has. I just need his dragon to fulfill this stupid foretelling, and after we free the people, I’ll set him free.”
She continued to stare at me. “You would do that?”
“Yes.” I didn’t think twice answering that. I was aware he would never want to stay with me. The Rubicon couldn’t be tamed, well not like that.
“I’ll try my best to speak to him. Make it a bit easier for you to learn with his dragon form, and only his dragon form.”
I nodded.
“Just remember your promise,” she said, before she got up and left.
I didn’t like the way she’d said that. Why would she ask me to remember my promise? As if Blake and I would ever…okay so that almost happened once, but I wasn’t that stupid.
I took a deep breath. Maybe that wasn’t such a stupid idea and who knew, maybe Blake would, just maybe, start participating and the Council might back off a little.
When I entered the room, the girls were talking non-stop about Sammy’s upcoming birthday party. It was her eighteenth and it was a big deal, even for dragons.
I’d completely forgotten about it and felt bad that I was so preoccupied lately.
I would have to make it up to her in her gift. She wanted a leather jacket really badly, and not just any leather jacket, the expensive kind. Last year I didn’t have that kind of money, but this year, I could get that jacket for her. I would speak to Becky when Sammy wasn’t around; maybe both of us could get it for her.
