I OPENED MY eyes and it was dark. My heart beat fast as I could sense someone inside my room.
I lifted my head slightly and saw the arm of a figure standing right in front of my bed.
I swallowed hard as I searched for the panic button.
“Looking for this?” Seymour asked with the button in his hands.
“How did you survive, my little bird?”
I found my voice and screamed. I jolted up in bed. Seymour was gone and Constance barged into the room.
“It’s just a dream, you are safe. You are safe,” she whispered and I started to sob. I’d been so strong and now, it was as if I’d gone back to being the old Elena who’d just discovered dragons were real. Worse, I was so much weaker than she had ever been.
I didn’t want to fall asleep, but fatigue always came and it took over.
I woke constantly from dreams of Seymour visiting me and they felt so real. And if it wasn’t Seymour, it was memories of what had happened that night in the forest.
I would never be able to look at trees the same way ever again.
The only thing that constantly did pop up in my mind was what that one girl said the night Annie and I were taken. They were going to break me, and hard too.
I was broken, and to be honest, I didn’t think that this time I could pick up the pieces.
For four months the cockroaches had had nothing to print of me inside the tabloids, except, Where is she? Now I was back and they couldn’t wait to torture me again.
Becky and Sammy came every day, but I didn’t want to see them. I wasn’t ready.
I didn’t give a crap about Blake. As far as I was concerned, he should just stay as far away from me as he could. I didn’t even want to see him. I constantly wielded my shield to drown out background noise.
Constance came in too, so many times, but not once did she fight with me, interrupt me or tell me that this had to stop. Not once.
Queen Margerite and King Helmut wanted to take me back to the palace and that was a great idea, but the Council had passed their verdict already.
I had to go back to the academy. Too much time had already been wasted, whatever that meant.
So on the tenth day, I had no choice but to pack my bags and wait for Master Longwei and Constance to come and get me.
One of the nurses brought in the release papers.
I missed Annie and worried about her. I was sure Seymour was going to take it out on her. He knew she was like a sister to me. I pushed her to the back of my mind. She wouldn’t make it this time. They would kill her. I couldn’t help her.
Jimmy and Monique had also visited me, while I was in the hospital.
Monique tried hard not to cry, and she was speaking about everything that had happened during the past four months, business wise. I didn’t want to hear anything about Blake and cut her off the first time she mentioned his name. Jimmy shook his head and gave me a soft look.
It was the most I’d got from him too. He had hardly spoken.
Isabel and Sir Robert also popped in daily.
Sir Robert tried, on numerous occasions, to find out the name of the wyvern city, but I refused. I was being selfish, and that was the part he struggled with. When the fighting got too much, I would close my eyes and wield my shield. They all knew that whenever I did that, they had to go.
Plenty of people visited me, and reporters sometimes just barged through.
Those pictures always landed up on the front page. It used to be embarrassing, but I didn’t care anymore.
I packed the last of my clothes in my leather bag that either Becky or Sammy had brought. I knew they meant well, but I wasn’t ready.
I didn’t want to hear how they’d searched for me; they should’ve found me.
George was one of the best damn trackers in Dragonia Academy, if not one of the best in Paegeia. Paul was right, in that dream I’d had in the cave. My friends didn’t really care about me.
King Helmut tried to speak to me about him searching too.
He told me he had sent out search parties, but that they would always come back empty handed.
He even asked me once if I was sure I was inside one of the wyvern cities.
Wyverns weren’t fond of humans at all.
I knew where I was, it was a wyvern city all right and one where humans rode on their backs.
I didn’t want them to find anything.
Yep, I said those words to King Helmut. I didn’t care about anything or about anyone anymore.
“Elena.” Constance’s soft voice came from the door, pulling me back to reality.
I turned around and found her smiling sweetly. It was so hard.
It felt as if they had all betrayed me because nobody really looked for me.
“You ready?”
I nodded, just to make her shut up really. I looked back at my bag on the bed. I put on my jersey and the glasses I held.
Becky had bought the glasses for my birthday and I sighed as I put them on.
Outside, every doctor and nurse who had cared for me during the past ten days said goodbye.
Just that, goodbye. What could they say? Get well soon? I wasn’t sick, I had been assaulted. I hated that and hated the scum more.
It was one of the reasons I didn’t want to see Blake. He looked so much like Billy. It was because of Blake, because I’d been missing his face, that I’d trusted him, that I’d believed him when he said he would help me.
He also reminded me that he was well and alive. And that once again he had been a huge disappointment.
I didn’t even know why I’d thought he would’ve searched for me when I’d discovered he was alive, but a part of me truly believed that there was still good somewhere inside of him, and that maybe, just maybe that kiss had done something, but it hadn’t.
Even though Constance did say he’d dented after the kiss and that was why there had been so much blood. He was still Blake and he would always end up disappointing me, letting me down when I needed him the most. No more, that door had closed.
I was in a nightmare because of him.
I dabbed away the tears and tried to prepare myself for what was waiting for me outside.
Deep breaths, Elena.
I opened the doors and found…Emanuel.
He was smiling at me with so much compassion. He ended up giving me a bear of a hug when I couldn’t stay strong anymore. It made my body turn into a pillar. I stepped away from his hug and couldn’t look at him. Still, I was grateful there were no flashing lights, no irritating questions, no Kevin, nothing. It was only Emanuel.
“I’ll take it from here,” he said to Constance.
“They might be at the Academy.” Constance sounded concerned.
“I know what to do. Don’t worry.”
I gave her one last glance, and she smiled sweetly before I jumped into the SUV parked right in front of the steps.
“Who might be at the Academy, the press?”
“Don’t worry. We’re not going to take that route. I found another way to go to the Academy.” He flinched slightly at the beginning of the sentence.
“Why weren’t they at the hospital?” I couldn’t believe how easy it was to still speak to him. He was a guy, but for some reason I felt safe with him.
“Constance told them that she would devour each and every one of them if they showed up, I seconded it.”
To my surprise, I laughed. It was a good laugh. I couldn’t imagine what it would look like or whether they were truly going to do it, but it was comical in my head, seeing a Swallow Annex and a Sun-Blast picking up people with their claws and swallowing them whole.
Then I thought about Kevin. He had been threatened many times but he’d never backed down.
“Seriously Emanuel, how did you guys do it?”
“We asked them nicely. That day a couple just barged into your room pretending to be nurses and took pictures while asking questions. It was uncalled for, and I really did threaten them.” He sighed. “Kevin was another story, and when you are eventually up for it he wants an exclusive interview with you on ‘Just Kev.’”
I grunted. I hated that show and yes, I’d been a regular topic ever since that day the vault opened up.
“When you are ready, not today or any day soon.”
I nodded.
It was silent for a long time.
“Where the hell were you? We searched everywhere and couldn’t find you.”
“I told you where I was. Please I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Elena there are people that can help bring them to justice, believe me. Those seven idiots.”
I looked at him and a painful expression pulled Emanuel’s face.
“How do you know about them?”
He drew a few breaths. To be honest I didn’t give a shit about what sort of pain he was going through, probably a bad burrito or a sick deer he’d devoured.
“Their scent lingered on you. I breathed it all in.” He spoke fast and it looked as if the pain was starting to pass.
He breathed it all in.
“How many people know this?” I hated that Emanuel knew that I’d been assaulted. He was the last person I wanted to know.
“A couple, those that matter and can actually do something about bringing them to justice.”
I nodded as a tear escaped my eye then looked back out the window to wipe it away. He would regard me completely differently now, as if I was some sort of injured deer, begging to be put out of its misery.
“Hey, I will find them eventually and then they are going to wish they were never born, you hear?”
I nodded but didn’t look at him. I really didn’t want to speak about it.
He took a side road, one that didn’t lead to the Academy and my heart started to beat slightly faster again.
I could tell he heard the change and he closed his eyes and glanced out his side of the window.
“I’ll never hurt you like that. You are my princess and that is the way it’s going to stay.”
“Sorry, I guess I’ll need a bit more time.” I rubbed my hands and lay with my head on my knees. I felt like an idiot.
“Take all the time you need. This road is the one I spoke about earlier to avoid the paparazzi that might try to break the deal.”
I sat with my back straight, took a deep breath and nodded.
We drove a couple of miles into the forest. My heart pounded again and I breathed deeply. I could feel that Emanuel didn’t like it one bit. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, well, maybe I didn’t fully, but the forest had lost its beauty to me, every time I saw so many trees that day replayed inside my head.
He parked the car under one and went behind a tree, I saw the transformation partially and a beautiful Sun-Blast walked back out.
“It’s safe, princess. Nobody is ever going to hurt you, that’s my dragon oath.”
I sucked in breath as he said that. I knew what a dragon oath meant to them. They would die or could die if they ever said it out loud. It pissed me off, and I climbed out of the car. “Why did you say that?” I yelled at the big beautiful mutt that reminded me of a Chinese dragon.
“Because I promise you with my entire being, you will never be hurt again.”
BLAKE
Two days earlier.
“OKAY, SO IT’S set.” Constance looked at all of us inside the waiting room. “She will be discharged in two days.”
“Okay,” I said while looking at the ground, then looked at George. They had all been really good friends to me during the past few months and Elena was lucky to have them as hers, even though she didn’t want any of them around her. “I guess we have some work to do.”
“Blake, threats are not going to work with Kevin. You need to negotiate with him, give him something.” Constance spoke to my back.
“I’ll think of something.”
I walked out and could feel the others right behind me.
“So what is the plan?” George reached me first.
“We will need Emanuel’s help too. He’s the only one that hasn’t pushed her back into that dark place ever since she got here.” That day my father yelled at her for a name jumped into my head. I had been so livid with him, but he’d promised to never do that again.
I opened the door that led to the stairs and jumped off the roof. My wings came out first and then in a second my entire dragon form took over. Sammy and George morphed and Becky and Dean climbed onto their backs.
We flew straight to the castle and had to wait a while for Emanuel, as he had to do something for King Helmut. I was sure it was an Elena-related thing as King Helmut had tried everything in his power the past few days to stake out some of the wyvern cities Elena could’ve been in.
I had to admit, her story didn’t make much sense as wyverns weren’t big admirers of humans at all. But I believed her, if she said she was in one, then, it was a deep one into which no human had ever delved. It was one of the reasons none of them knew about the sort of oppression Matt was speaking about.
I heard Emanuel landing, all of us did, and the door opened.
He grinned as he saw me, greeted all the others first and gave me a brotherly hug. “How is she?”
“Getting discharged in two days. We have to keep them off her, keep it out of the papers.”
“Any ideas?”
I nodded. “We stage her discharge.”
“What!” Becky said. “That is your plan?”
“It will work.” I looked at her.
“Kevin is not going to buy that,” Emanuel said.
“Then I’ll negotiate with the bastard.”
“How, Blake?” Becky asked again.
“I’ll think of something, okay?”
I told them the plan. It was Becky and Sammy’s job to play Elena’s part. I only needed one of them. They needed to get the wig, the clothes she would normally wear and everything that went with it. George and Dean had to find a different route to Dragonia. George was a good guide when it came to finding different routes, and things that didn’t want to be found. I used to be the best but I didn’t trust that part of me anymore.
That was how I knew she was unreachable. George would’ve found her if she was in any wyvern city. Although running and hiding was something she was extremely good at. It had been her life for sixteen years.
Still I couldn’t figure out where she had been if not there.
“What do I do?” Emanuel asked, eager to have a part in this as well.
“Help me not kill Kevin.”
He laughed, the good kind, and all of them joined in. “Okay, but I might not be the right one for the task. I might actually hold him down.”
I laughed this time. It was good to have them around me. It was good to have her back, even if she didn’t want to see me, it would pass. One day it would pass.
WE PHONED THE studio where his stupid show was taking place, and to our surprise the vermin agreed to a private meeting. It was at a warehouse just outside of Tith.
He showed up alone and found Emanuel and I in the middle of the factory.
“You cannot expect me to stay away from that hospital two days from now. The people of Paegeia want to know if she’s okay.”
“They already know, thanks to one of your reporters two days back.”
“That wasn’t me. I simply paid a lot of money for those pictures. Besides, you can’t blame me. The people of Paegeia want to see her, hear every little detail about you and her.”
I grunted and wanted to go for him because there would probably never be a ‘me and her’. She had just been brutally assaulted. Emanuel held me back as Kevin retreated a little.
“I thought this was a friendly meeting, if not, I’ll just be on my way.”
“Kevin wait,” Emanuel said. “We are begging you. She is not ready for the public.” He spoke to Kevin’s back.
“Not my problem, Emanuel.”
He held me back again and spoke soft words, as I was ready to open my mouth to threaten him.
“An exclusive, just with you,” Emanuel said loudly. It made Kevin stop and turn around. I just stared at Emanuel. What was he saying?
“When?” Kevin asked.
“When she is ready,” I said through clenched teeth. “And if I find any pictures of her leaving the hospital in any newspaper, the deal is off.”
“What other reporters are going to do is not my problem.”
“It’s off. You have your sneaky ways to trick the famous. For once, use it on your buddies, or I swear I’ll smash every fucking camera you ever point in her direction ever again.”
Kevin’s one eye twitched; it only happened when he was really angry but it also seemed to happen when he was contemplating things. “Fine, but what I do until two days from now? Just trust me, otherwise you can forget about not having any reporters at that hospital.”
“Fine,” Emanuel said, and I stared at him.
“Elena is news. You said it yourself,” Kevin said. “I have to trick my own, so let me do my job.”
I nodded, not happy about what the hell he was going to say on that show of his, but fine, whatever.
“Remember our deal, boys. An exclusive interview with me.”
“When she is ready, don’t forget that part,” I spat out.
“Of course, and I mean alone, Blake.”
I grunted.
“It’s going to be okay. Elena has dealt with his ass for a long time and she happens to be really good at it. Margerite, on the other hand.”
My lips curved slightly, and if I hadn’t been so annoyed I probably would’ve laughed.
Silence filled the air around us.
“There is something I need to ask you.” I spoke softly.
“I knew Kevin wasn’t my only task, what is it?”
“I need you to make a dragon oath to Elena.” He froze.
“She isn’t my rider.”
“She needs to know that she is safe. I can’t do that because she doesn’t trust me yet. So please. Make one, and I will make one with you. If it gets broken, it will all be on me.”
He looked at me with compassion, admiration – whatever it was, and wiped his face hard. He was thinking about it. “Please, Emanuel. You have a different connection with her. One I wish I could take from you, but I can’t. Just do this for me, until the right time comes, please.”
“It’s really that easy for you dents, isn’t it?”
“Well, I’m not George, but yeah, it is. I can’t imagine how I could’ve ever treated her like that. I was such a fucking idiot.”
“I really need to know what it is, Blake.”
I shook my head. “You know I can’t.”
“Okay, I’ll do it. If that is what you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
EARLY ON THE morning of Elena’s discharge, we got ready in one of the rooms. Lucille, Becky’s mom, was there as well. She’d wanted to look in on Elena so badly the past few days, but she hadn’t wanted to see anyone, so Lucille had given her space.
I really liked Becky’s mom.
She was helping with the transformation, which was going to be done on Becky, and because she looked like Becky herself, she was going to take Becky’s place.
When Lucille was done, my heart twitched.
“Careful, she’s mine,” George joked and everyone laughed.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Lucille left her a comment and I felt like an idiot. Of course I knew it wasn’t really Elena.
“Don’t.” I looked at Becky through a huge grin. Heaven knows what it was she was going to say.
She chortled and picked up her bag that also belonged to Elena.
“I love this jacket.” She grunted and took a deep sniff from it. “Okay, let’s do this.” She put on her glasses and hooked her arm into mine.
“Easy, tiger,” I said and she smiled at me. “You are supposed to be scared, afraid and…”
“Yeah, yeah, fine whatever.”
We all took our positions and I removed Becky’s arm from mine. I looked at George, who grinned from ear to ear.
“Let’s go, Georgie,” Becky’s mom said. She was the spitting image of her daughter now that she had her sunglasses on and was wearing Becky’s clothes.
They walked out first and the flashes of cameras bounced off the walls. George transformed, and Lucille climbed on his back. Then Dean and Sammy waited for us to follow.
“You ready?” I asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s do this.” She put the hoody that was part of the jacket on top of her head and lowered her face.
We walked out and I held Becky really close to me with my arm covering her completely.
“Princess,” Kevin asked. “Can you tell us what it was like, where you were? The people of Paegeia need to know.”
I looked at Kevin and grabbed his camera and crushed it with my hand. They didn’t need to know shit.
“Blake, will she be okay?” another asked.
I didn’t answer, transformed and watched how many photographers took their pictures. The transformation shredded all my clothes and when my wings were free, I dove into the air, with Becky inside my paw.
Her heart was beating like crazy, her first flight with another, other than George, and not just any other, the massive Rubicon.
I hoped it worked.
We landed at the Academy, and one by one we started to transform back after we put down our passengers safely.
“You think that worked?” Becky asked and ripped off her wig.
“I hope so,” I said. I didn’t bargain on Kevin being there, but for the past two days he’d kept giving them the wrong time.
I guessed him not being there would’ve been a huge giveaway that it wasn’t her.
I had to break his camera so that he would remember our deal if he thought about breaking it.
He hadn’t expected it, but the realization of what my action stood for sank in – if it hadn’t already at the warehouse – now all we had to do was wait and see
