WE SAT IN the library. All three of them just stared at me.
“Elena,” Annie spoke first. “I don’t want you to bring them here if they are just going to throw them—”
“What didn’t you hear? With God as my witness, they will pass through when the time is right. I refuse to let them hurt you. I promise you that. The plan will work, Your mother will not let them put you or any of your family in quarantine. You hear?”
She nodded.
“And if I was a dragon, I would’ve given you my dragon’s oath that nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever harm any of you. You’ve had your share of suffering. No more.”
She hugged me and Connie stroked her back.
“Does Constance know about Annie yet?” David asked.
I shook my head. “It’s not something you tell someone over the phone.”
He nodded.
“So let me just go through it again.” Annie’s tone was still doubtful. “We wait for this Emanuel, who will come with ten ops guys.”
“And hopefully girls,” I added.
The corner of her lips curled slightly upward. “And girls wearing these devices.”
I nodded.
“We get ten out.”
“Yes, I want to bring Cassy and Daisy too; it will help everyone see that they are innocent, that they’ve suffered enough.”
“Have you thought what this could do to Cassy?”
“I know you are scared. Just trust me, please. I can protect you.”
She smiled. “I’m sorry, I know I’m sounding like a –”
“Don’t. You have grown up surrounded by darkness. I can’t promise you a life without it, as there will always be evil as long as there is good, but I can promise you that I will try my best. I will die fighting to keep you guys safe, and if you haven’t noticed, my blood is sort of the shit around here.”
I begged her with my eyes not to say anything about my father, which thank heavens she hadn’t.
“Okay,” Annie said.
I looked at Connie and David. “Are you sure that you can set aside ten rooms?”
David took my hands in his. “Elena, this is my dragon we are talking about. We might not share a dent, but our bond was strong, really strong before the Creepers divided us. This is his family, which makes it mine too. We will die protecting them with whatever we have.”
“Okay, the dying part is a bit overdramatic –”
He started to laugh. “Guess you rub off on people really fast. The only other person who had the ability to do that, was your father.”
I took a deep breath as he said it. Please, Annie, just keep your mouth shut.
“Thank you David, I think we should go to bed. Emanuel said he would try to be here with what we need in the next forty-eight hours.”
“Okay.” Annie got up and hugged Connie and David, thanking them for their hospitality.
“Don’t, we just hope you are going to sleep well tonight.”
“I’m sure I will. The room is absolutely stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that.”
“What lovely words.” Connie smiled, and we both went back to our rooms.
I slept in Blake’s room. I don’t know why. I never thought that I would miss him this much. I didn’t want to think about the dragon and the crow anymore. I know now what that image meant, and I refused to think of it as Blake and the Saadedine.
I needed to find out what that missing ingredient was, and fast. Deep down I knew we were not going to have much time to figure things out.
I SPENT MOST of the next day inside David’s library. I went through so many books about plants and what their uses were, not knowing what to look for in the first place, but when I saw it, I would know.
I just had to believe it. Herbs came next and then potions.
When one book started talking about organs and the blood of the Chromatic dragons, I put it aside. I refused to think that the missing ingredient would require us to take a life.
I wasn’t going to do that. I refused to do that.
Connie kept bringing me coffee and snacks as I went through all the books that looked as if they might hold the answer. She even put on her reading glasses and paged through few old ones herself.
It was sweet of her.
There were plenty of plants that you could grind with others to cure something. There were cures but there was nothing that could kill a vicious beast.
I sighed. I just didn’t know anymore. What if this missing ingredient wasn’t something you could get from a plant or from a dragon? What if it wasn’t something physical but something you couldn’t feel or see? What if it was something that we needed to make our bond stronger? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
Blake and I, sure we’d kissed a few times, but that was about it. He still had Tabitha. I kept my thoughts to myself.
It wasn’t even real what he felt for me, even though he’d said it in Just Kev’s interview. I knew the old Blake, how he’d felt about me, and there was nothing, and I mean nothing in this world that would make me understand this sudden affection they had for their riders. To act as if they were our shadows. Something was binding them to us, forever, and all I could see in my mind’s eye were these invisible strings that hurt them badly whenever they tried to break free, whenever they wandered off or acted different from what we wanted.
Blake was strong, he would find a way to wake from all of this eventually, and then he would go back to hating me again.
I had to keep my distance from him somehow, not fall for him, but I feared that was already too late. I had fallen for him, or a part of me had. Maybe that part had never truly hated him in the first place; maybe it was just the darkness in him that I started to experience as well and Lucian’s death was just the trigger?
I knew what the missing ingredient was, our love, and that would never be real. Someone was going to die, and when the time came, that someone was going to be me.
“YOU ARE EXTREMELY quiet tonight. Everything okay?” Annie asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m just tired, that’s all.”
“What were you searching for today?”
I sighed as I looked at everyone around the table. “When Blake and I got here, he had his first glimpse into our future.”
Her eyes grew big.
“Yeah, I know that look. It was pretty much what I looked like that night.”
“What did he see?”
“I’m not sure,” I lied. “But I’m more concerned about what came out of his mouth.”
“What did he say?”
I told her and she stared at me.
“Elle.” She was speechless.
“I know. I was searching for the missing ingredient.”
“Any luck?”
I shook my head.
“You want me to help you tomorrow?”
“That would be nice.”
“We will find it. I promise you, we will find it.” Her attempt to reassure me failed miserably, as I already knew what that ingredient was.
And that was something unlikely to happen.
The bell in reception rang, and Shelby got up and ran out of the dining room to greet them.
“We should close the doors,” I told David. “We have to be prepared for Charles and the others.”
“Calm down, we will have enough accommodation for everyone.”
“Elena?” Shelby popped into the dining room again and gestured for me to follow her. Just then a big boar of a man walked in and I got up and ran to him.
I flung my arms around him, and by his posture I could tell he hadn’t expected that.
“You are seriously fast,” I said.
“Then I’m afraid that you will be disappointed when I tell you that I lost that title.”
I smiled as I let go of Emanuel. “I heard. Doesn’t it just make you sick?”
“You have no idea,” he joked.
“Come, I want you to meet Annie, one of my dearest friends who I would die to protect.”
“Okay, let’s go meet this bullet.”
I laughed again and led him to the table.
“Emanuel.” David got up, “So nice of you to come.”
“When the princess calls, I’m the guy, well back-up.”
He laughed and they shook hands.
“This is my wife, Connie.” He started introducing everyone.
“We have your rooms ready for tonight.”
Emanuel glanced over at me. “We are not leaving tonight?”
“No, they have the days wrong. When it’s day here, it’s night time that side, so we are going to leave tomorrow.”
“I see.” He looked back at David. “Well in that case, thank you so much.”
“Have you managed to get me everything that we need?” I had to know.
“Have I ever disappointed you before?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Then you can meet Annie,” I joked, and he laughed again.
“Annie, this is Emanuel, he is a Sun-Blast.”
“She is a Sun-Blast.”
“Was,” Annie corrected him and reached out to shake his hand.
Emanual narrowed his eyes. “Was?”
“She hasn’t transformed in the past ten years.”
“What?”
Annie giggled. “It’s okay. I’m used to my human form.”
“Oh, hell no, missy. You are a dragon and dragon you shall become again,” Emanuel said, which made her blush.
“Frawsome!” I yelled which made Annie laugh.
“What the heck is frawsome?”
“Freaking and awesome mixed together. I have two friends who can literally write their own dictionary.”
Everyone laughed.
“So, I take it that there are ten more waiting somewhere to get checked in?”
“There are only nine.”
My face fell. “Emanuel, please don’t do this.”
“Elena, I haven’t felt useful in a very, very long time. Sun-Blasts are actually very handy when there is war. Besides, I will come back. You think Helmut is going to let me stay for as long as I want? He wants me to get some intel, and then I’ll come back and someone else can take my place.”
“What sort of intel?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m a Sun-Blast dragon and one that has fought beside your father in all his wars.”
That was what I was afraid of. He was going to discover that my father was still alive. I might as well tell everyone now, but I’d promised my dad I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I had to think of what this would do to Sir Robert.
“Okay, how long?”
“Two weeks, max.”
“Week and a half, and I don’t want to go looking for you, please.”
He smiled. “Fine, a week and a half it is.”
“Okay.”
WE MET THOSE who were going to take the nine places in Etan. It was scary as hell, and I had to go back in to tell them what was going to happen. We needed families so that the Ancients would back off from putting them into quarantine and help us make sure they were safe in temporary places until permanent residences could be found for them.
I had to tell them what the plan was, and I puffed out my breath just thinking about it.
“You sure it is safe?”
“It’s the Creepers, Emanuel. You don’t know what you are going to get with them.”
“So what, they just back off?”
I nodded.
“Wow, you sure are a special girl.”
I laughed as he said that. “So I have been told.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Emanuel.”
“No, I promised that you would be safe.”
“Yeah, about that. Blake sort of made that oath too.”
Emanuel grinned widely. “So, you two have come to a truce.”
“Sort of. when I discovered that I was in Etan, I discovered a lot of other things that night too. Saw it for myself on my Sonic.”
“Ah, the Sonic device. Well, now I’m glad that you chose that project.”
“I didn’t choose it for the right reasons. I only wanted to see my mom.” I had felt so guilty, still did.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. I knew you weren’t going to believe any of us, so I’m glad you could see for yourself what he did. You know I really thought at a stage he was trying to kill himself, but now I know better. Nothing was wrong with his tracking ability. If anything, it’s the strongest by far.”
“Again, it’s so nauseating, right?”
He laughed. “It is.”
It was quiet for a long time. “So what is this I hear about him giving his first foretelling?”
I smiled. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Elena.”
“It is what it is. We have to find a missing ingredient otherwise one of us is going to die. It’s as easy as that.”
“Not easy. I can promise you that.” He was serious again. “You have an idea what it could be?”
“It’s not my blood, that I can promise you, and Blake thinks it’s himself. He believes with all his heart that my part was to get everyone in and out, his part is to kill the Saadedine.”
“So he’s real?”
I nodded. “I saw him.”
“When?” Emanuel asked.
“Well not like that. I saw a glimpse of what Blake saw a couple of hours before he got the vision. He’s huge, and is something Blake isn’t going to be able to kill. He was the size of a crow spitting fire. It was terrifying.”
“He is magical, just like his rider. If there is a dragon that can do it, it’s him. No one else has that strength.”
I shook my head. “Can we please just talk about anything else? Anything?”
He gave me a lopsided smile before he nodded.
“So, that promise you made to Annie?”
He chuckled. “I meant it. I will help her try to get her dragon form to surface again.”
“You think it will be that easy?”
“I know of one that woke up even when she wasn’t supposed to, so yes. Annie will get her dragon form back. I promise.”
