Part 4
WHEN I CAME back, Becky was sleeping. I should never have sprung that on her. Ever. Thinking it over again, I felt terrible
I took a bath, and didn’t want to close my eyes because I knew I would only see Seymour and Billy. The night Clive died seemed to be playing over and over in my mind a lot as well, especially when he’d seen James’s body broken like that.
How had Seymour found out about James and his dad? Clearly, I hadn’t played my role convincingly enough. Even if Leo had shown me that they were all evil, for someone to want me like that was too shallow of a reason for why the man who had protected me for almost three months needed to die.
I also couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t find this wyvern city. I’d looked through almost every map in the library by now and I still couldn’t locate it.
It didn’t make any sense, and only confirmed my initial theory that they didn’t know what the wyvern city names were, let alone where they were located.
Still, the biggest problem for me now was Blake. Now they were forcing me to go on a mission with him. Just the two of us, alone. It was going to be a long, agonizing month, that I was sure of. What upset me still the most was the outcome of what everyone was expecting this trip would deliver. Me accepting Blake as my dragon again. That was never going to happen. I would never trust him, I would never feel safe with him.
I climbed out of the bath and into my bed. Sammy was still not in hers and the clock read seven o’clock.
I looked at Becky’s still body, breathing in a slow, rhythmic pattern. I should’ve never told her. If she told George, he would tell Blake, which wasn’t all a bad thing as I wanted him to know that my revenge was coming.
I wanted him to know that I would never forgive him for not being there. Not that I thought he cared at all, but my friends sure did.
George would’ve never let anything like that happen to Becky, ever.
As I closed my eyes, sleep struggled to come. Thoughts and worries made me lie awake. I pretended to be asleep when Sammy eventually came in. I could feel her hand stroking my cheek softly and she planted a sweet kiss on my head. She didn’t say anything, and I knew Becky had told her.
She climbed into bed a couple of minutes later and I listened to her fall asleep.
I must have dozed off, because I woke with someone breathing in my face. At first I thought it was Becky, wanting to talk more, but when I opened my eyes it was Seymour.
Wake up, Elena, wake up, I kept telling to myself.
“Hello, my beautiful bird,” he said and gave me that wicked smirk. Then our window burst into tiny pieces. It happened so fast and the shrill, agonizing scream Seymour let out when the Rubicon tore him to pieces pulled me out of the nightmare.
I was breathing loudly and started to cry again.
“It was just a dream.” Becky was at my side and I could feel Sammy wrapping her arms around me too.
“I’m so sorry.” Becky’s voice broke. “For everything.”
I grabbed the arm that was awkwardly around my neck and cried softly again. I was never going to escape the nightmares, even if the Rubicon was changing them. I still didn’t know why I’d dreamed that. I wanted nothing to do with him. It wasn’t real, it would never be real.
“What woke you?” Sammy asked, and this time Becky stared at her. Their roles had reversed.
“It was this psycho guy. I keep finding him next to my bed. It’s as if he is looking for me and it’s only a matter of time before he finds me.”
Becky’s face hardened. “Good, I want him to find you because I promise you, he will die a gruesome death.”
I hugged her again. It wasn’t what I wanted but knowing that she was there, knowing that George would help – not that Becky needed it as she was vicious all on her own – made me feel slightly better about my fear of Seymour finding me.
I nodded, and she tucked a strand of hair from my face behind my ear. “Nothing will ever hurt you ever again.”
I huffed. “I wish I could take you with on this trip.”
They both stared at me then Sammy looked away. “I wish I could be there too. It’s so unfair,” Becky said and Sammy looked at her. I hugged Becky again. She’d finally come back, she was on my side again.
I sniffed hard.
We decided that sleep was for the birds and watched reruns on TV. The girls laughed at everything and later on, one character did something extremely funny, and I laughed with them. It carried on like that the entire night until an interview with Blake addressing the public about our trip to Etan came on. It was one he had done during his first week the campaign started, that they played over and over.
Ever since Master Longwei told us about that, he spoke through every single form of media, interviews, radio, newspapers, you name it, about us going on a trip to Etan.
The interviews always got cut short the minute they asked him how I was doing. He never replied, just turned around and walked away.
Becky switched off the TV the minute he started to speak. “I think we should call it a night,” she said and we all went to bed.
He was never like this, and I sighed, thinking what it was he had gone through after that kiss in my room. It definitely wasn’t the same thing George had experienced, that much I knew, and I was really glad for that too.
Still, I was glad I had my friends back, well one, as Sammy would never see her brother as one of the bad guys, not now. Maybe not ever, but she was here and not disappearing like she had the past few weeks.
We had fun tonight, and a part of me wished every day could be like this.
THE NIGHT BEFORE our departure, Blake wasn’t in any of our classes. I figured he was either busy with other interviews, or was preparing to find his orbs, whatever it was they could do.
Later, I was called in to Master Longwei’s office alone.
“Sit, Elena,” he said and smiled softly.
I sat and stared at him. “I’m sure you know by now that this mission is mixed with something else. Please, I’m begging you, when Blake feels that one of his orbs is close by, just be patient with him.”
“So what? I’ll be camping somewhere while he saunters off trying to find it?”
He squinted. “No. Under no circumstances should you be left alone. You have to stay close to him, you hear?”
I huffed. “I hope he gets that memo. You know what he is like.”
“Oh, it’s not my memo. It’s his.”
Wait, what?
“And yes, I do know what he is like. It’s you who seem not to have got that memo, yet.”
I stared at him. He hadn’t changed, well not that much.
“I’m not one of your friends, so I’m not going to lie to you about certain things that happened and it’s not my duty to correct you either.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?”
“Something that you are going to find out about soon enough, and when that happens, I hope that forgiving yourself is as easy as it is going to be to forgive him.”
“What?” I didn’t have to listen to this. “Do you have anything else you want to add before I leave?” I sounded rude.
“No, that is it,” he said, and I left.
Now I was sitting on my bed, not knowing what Master Longwei had meant by any of that. ‘Forgive myself as easily as it was going to be to forgive Blake?’ Never in a million years.
The fact that he wanted me close to him whenever he was going to find one of his precious orbs was nerve-wracking. Dangerous scenes of flying with him and climbing mountains kept popping into in my mind. He was going to kill me on this mission, that much I was certain of.
I didn’t like Master Longwei’s choice of words either, the ones about my friends lying to me. About what exactly, I didn’t know, although I had a feeling it fell into the Blake category.
Could it be the reason why Becky had forgiven him so easily? How was I ever going to find out? Would Blake tell me? I was sure I would never believe him even if he did.
The door opened and Becky and Sammy entered in high spirits. They were talking about something that had happened at dinner. I hadn’t gone because I was not hungry.
“Hey, Chef sent this. He said that he refuses to take no for an answer, and you have to get something in that stomach of yours before the big trek,” Sammy babbled and put down a plate of food covered with a silver lid.
I took off the lid and found coq au vin – my absolute favorite.
I sniffed and the aroma filled my nostrils. “Remind me to say thanks to him.”
“Oh you will. He’s preparing a breakfast just for you and Blake tomorrow, early before you leave.”
I wanted to grunt but Sammy loved her brother. They would seriously push him on top of me if they could.
“Then I’ll thank him tomorrow.”
It was silent for a while.
“So, you all packed?”
“Yeah.” I looked at my backpack. “I got a note saying that I should pack light.”
“You’ll need more clothes than that,” Sammy said as she got up from my bed and took my backpack. “You can borrow mine.” She went to her closet and took out the most beautiful traveling backpack I’d ever seen.
“When did you get that?”
“My dad bought it for me for that stupid camping trip.”
I knew the stupid camping trip she was referring to. It was the weekend I’d freed Blake, the weekend that he kissed me. There was no denying that the kiss fell into the slightly perfect category, but it was that kiss and its consequences that had set the events of the past five odd months in motion, and I doubted I would ever be able to get over what had happened to me a month ago.
Becky helped and we took all the clothes I owned and chose from there what to pack.
“Can I ask you girls something?”
They both looked at me as I folded one of my shirts to put in the bag.
“Shoot, what is it?”
“You guys have been honest with me, right?” I asked.
Becky squinted and looked at Sammy. “Honest about what? You need to be specific.”
“Blake related.”
Sammy looked down immediately and put my trousers in the bag. I looked at Becky.
“Why are you asking this? Did someone say something?”
“You could say that,” I said.
“Who?”
“Master Longwei.”
She closed her eyes.
“Becky, what are you hiding? I need to know. I’m leaving with him tomorrow, and if something is going to happen that I should know –”
“It’s not like that,” Sammy said. “My brother might be a huge douchebag, and heaven knows he has seriously fucked up any chance he had with you, but he would never ever hurt you like that.”
I swallowed hard at her choice of words. What did she mean by any chance he had with me? It wasn’t like that. We were never going to become anything like that.
“I’m sorry, I just get upset that you always think the worst of him. I know what he did, okay. He hurt you more than any guy here, and yes, it’s unfair that they’re forcing you to go on this trip with him, and he will probably never be enough, but he does deserve a chance to tell his side of the story.”
“His side? What are you…” I looked at both of them. “This is what Master Longwei was referring to wasn’t it? What are you not telling me?”
“Don’t ask me that. I promised Blake I wouldn’t say.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You promised your brother you wouldn’t say what?”
“Tell you the truth,” Becky said. “Sammy can’t, she is taking her promise quite seriously.”
“As it should be,” Sammy snapped. “You promised him too.”
“I refuse to leave with him if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“We can’t. It’s not our story to tell.” Becky had that look on her face, the same one Master Longwei had had when he’d uttered that stupid line about forgiving him.
My arms were folded. They were my friends, but still, I meant what I had said, and I turned around and left. If they were not going to tell me, someone else would.
I KNOCKED ON the infirmary door a bit louder than I intended.
I could hear Constance walking around and then she slowly opened the door.
“Elena!” She sounded surprised. “I wondered if you were going to come by.” She stood in the doorway blocking my view.
“Can I come in?”
“I’m really busy, but give me an hour please, then we can talk.”
“It’s fine.” Blake’s voice came from inside as his figure appeared behind his aunt’s. “I’ve said all I wanted to say anyway.”
He kissed her on the cheek. “Just be careful,” she said to his retreating figure, and he laughed. “Everyone, except Elena, seems to forget what it is I really am.”
She grinned and I stared at her. “Come in.”
I entered and went to her office. I took a seat and waited for her to sit down too, after she switched on the kettle.
“You want some tea?”
“No, thank you. I need answers.”
“Okay, what sort of answers?”
“Nobody wants to tell me. Master Longwei said something to me, and now I can’t seem to stop wondering about it.”
“What did he say?” She sounded worried.
“It was Blake related. He said when the time came and I discovered something, that he hoped forgiving myself would be as easy as it will be to forgive him.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“Constance, please. Becky and Sammy didn’t want to say anything, they promised – which is seriously messed up, by the way.”
“Is it?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Just tell me.”
She shook her head slowly. “I can’t. I made a promise too.”
I fell back into the chair. “So what, I have to leave with him tomorrow, not knowing anything?”
“I didn’t say that. You can always ask him.”
I drew a deep breath. I hadn’t spoken to Blake directly since I’d come back. Well except for that day with the barcode.
“I can call him back, if you like?”
I had to know so I nodded. She smiled, picked up her Cammy and spoke his name.
I didn’t watch his hologram appear on the tiny screen. His face still reminded me of Billy’s.
“Everything okay?” he asked when he saw Constance’s face. “Yes, you need to come back.”
“Constance, I was basically done when Elena knocked. I don’t –”
“Yes, you do,” she said and put down the Cammy.
I sighed. The waiting was excruciating.
“Just be open-minded and if you want to ask anybody else if what he says is the truth, ask Emanuel.”
“Emanuel?”
“It’s a long story, but I know you still trust Emanuel.”
I didn’t, not really. He was on team Blake too.
The knock on the door made me flinch, and Constance got up. I listened as she opened the infirmary door.
“I really said all I needed to, but if you don’t want to part with me yet,” he joked.
“It’s not that, Blake, come.”
“Okay, what’s up? Elena okay?” he asked in a worried tone that didn’t belong to him at all. I hadn’t expected that.
Constance chortled before she entered.
Blake froze at the doorway when he saw me still sitting in the chair. I didn’t look at him.
“Sit, Blake.”
“Is it safe?”
“Just sit down,” I said, irritated.
He didn’t say anything, and the chair screeched as he sat down.
“So what’s up?”
“Someone told Elena something about you-know-what and now none of us can say anything because of that stupid promise we made.”
He stayed quiet for a while then sighed. “Who?”
“Who do you think?” Constance said.
“Idiot.”
“It’s Master Longwei. He’s not an idiot.” I looked at him.
“Yes, he is,” Blake answered and stared at me.
“Just tell me what they don’t want to.”
He laughed sarcastically and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, you’re never going to believe me.”
I didn’t like this Blake. It was the one from the mountains, always smiling and making jokes.
“Stand up, Blake,” Constance said.
“Why?” Blake asked.
“Just stand up. Remember the advice you got from Leo and don’t mess this up.”
What advice, and mess what up?
He got up and lifted both his hands in the air as if to ask her “What now?”
Constance walked over to him and turned his back toward me. She lifted his shirt and I froze. He had a huge, brown, reddish circle on his back.
“Okay, that was not what I thought you were going to do.” Blake pulled down his shirt and stared angrily at his aunt.
That was a new mark, that much I knew.
“She needs to know that you tried.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. You are not that Blake anymore. Now tell her how you searched for her.”
“What?”
“Yeah, a shocker isn’t it. I couldn’t find you.”
I blew out a deep breath as he sat down again.
“Blake,” Constance said.
“She doesn’t need to know everything.”
“Yes, she does. This is your chance to speak to her.”
“Actions speak louder than words, and believe me I’m the last person she will believe.”
“You are the only one that can tell her. What is wrong with you? Stop being such an idiot, and speak to this girl. You’ve been waiting for this for five months now, speak to her and stop being such an ass. This isn’t who you are.” Constance was seriously angry with him.
“It’s the only Blake she knows, Constance.”
“Then let her meet the new one.”
Everything that had happened during the past six months flashed through my mind, and every horrible thought, every horrible feeling I’d had since the day Blake kissed me felt as if it was burning through my blood.
I stood up. “I’m right here!” I yelled. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not in the same room as you. I want to know what’s going on. What’s that thing on your back?” I looked at Blake and he stared at me.
“It was a Creeper.”
“A what?”
“He flew too close to the Creepers,” Constance said. “If it hadn’t been for Emanuel, he would’ve died.”
“Emanuel?”
“He helped me after a while. I tried, okay.” Blake sounded annoyed. “I failed miserably. I couldn’t find you. Something was wrong with my tracking ability when I woke up – everything was wrong when I woke up. The thing we used to share, it’s gone. I can’t hear a peep anymore.”
Emanuel had helped him. That was why Emanuel said those words that night of the hearing.
“Why did you go to the Creepers?” I asked angrily.
He gave a soft unbelievable laugh. “She is never going to get this.” And got up. “See you later.”
“Blake, don’t do this.” Constance looked at his retreating figure.
“Bye, Constance. See you tomorrow at three, Elena, and don’t be late.”
He left the infirmary.
I just looked at Constance.
“Don’t you dare look at me like that. I tried to tell you, and you didn’t want to listen.”
“What was he doing so close to the Creepers?”
“He dented. When he woke up after two weeks –”
“He was out for two weeks?” I interrupted her.
She nodded. “The only thing he did was try to find you. He didn’t even care about his own health. That was when Emanuel started to search with him.”
I couldn’t believe this. It didn’t sound real at all, but I’d seen that mark. He hadn’t even wanted her to show me, had gotten angry after she pulled up his shirt.
“His tracking ability really didn’t work. He couldn’t pick your scent up anywhere. He forced me to do tests on him, and the fact that he couldn’t hear you anymore, it wasn’t as easy on him as you may think.”
“Why did he go to the Creepers?”
“I don’t know. Emanuel was worried about that after a while. We all thought it was a death wish.”
“What?” I said. “You know how this sounds, right?”
“Oh, not what you expected? He dented,” Constance said.
It was a spell. It wasn’t real. None of this was real. He was stuck in the twilight zone too and would do anything I told him to. That was dangerous, very dangerous. I could not fall for him again. I wouldn’t.
“I’ve got to go,” I said and left as well. She didn’t even call after me.
I entered my room to discover the girls missing.
Blake tried to find me? I’d seen the mark. I grunted and pushed it out of my head. It wasn’t real.
