“We come in peace.” Emanual kept his palms in the air, in front of his body.
“Who are you?” A male voice said.
“We are from the other side.”
“Bullshit!”
Blake put on his hoodie and left my side, traipsing to the front.
“Stop walking. Nobody can get through from the other side. Who sent you?”
“Nobody sent us. We are from the other side. My name—”
“Ay, ay, ay, hands where I can see them.”
Emanual lifted his hands. “My name is Emanual Cooper. I’m King Helmut’s dragon. I’m from the other side.”
“There is nothing on the other side.”
“How do you know? You went through?” Blake asked, and the guy aimed his gun at Blake.
Emanual stepped in front of Blake. “Listen to me. Are you a dragon, or human?”
“There are no more dragons.”
“You’re what, in your twenties? You might have been too small to remember us. I’m King Helmut’s dragon. This is King Albert’s dragon.”
“Stop. The Wyvern King told us we are the only survivors.”
“Goran is lying to you. He can’t get through. He rules with fear and lies. It’s only Etan that got entrapped fifteen years ago.”
My heart pounded as I stood behind Dad, clutching his bag.
“Bullshit. Why now?”
“We had to wait?”
“For what?”
“For the king’s genuine air. Only a Malone can get through the creepers.”
“The king doesn’t have an heir.”
“He does, and she is with us. You want to hurt King Albert’s only daughter? The one they prayed for years.”
“Emanual.”
“Blake, shush.”
“Blake? As in the Rubicon?”
“Yes, we mean no harm. David, Charles Benson’s Dragon, send this letter.”
The guy hovered, but he reached out for the letter in Emanual’s outstretched hand.
A ruckus broke out and the trigger went off. Blake’s name was yelled, but no sound came.
“No, no, what happened?”
Dad put his hand on my lips. “He is okay. He dampened the bullet’s sound.”
My heart beat so fast and Dad had to repeat the sentence.
Blake appeared as Sir Robert picked up the basket and Emanual threw a limp body over his shoulder.
“He’s dead,” I whispered.
“Knocked out, Elena, calm down. We are not here to hurt anyone. The guy wasted time,” Blake said as he pulled me into his arms. “It’s over now.”
I nodded in his chest. He let me go and nudged me to follow his father. Dad walked behind us. We followed the path, past the corn that was taller than all of us.
My heart struggled to calm down as my eyes flickered to the sky. A suffocation pressed against my chest. It looked unnatural not to see a single star. I jumped at the scampering that came from the corn.
“Relax, it’s nothing. We can hear far.” Blake stroked my back.
My legs trembled as the past event played through my mind.
A spotlight shone in the distance. We walked slower, following Emanual’s lead. As we neared the house, another gun cocked. We all froze.
“We come in peace. We mean no harm.”
“Who is over your shoulder?”
“Are you Marcus?” Emanual asked.
“Who is over your shoulder?”
“We met him by the corn. I didn’t get his name.”
“Is he alive?” the guy’s voice broke.
“I knocked him out because he didn’t listen. We mean no harm. He is still alive.”
“Emanual?” an older gentleman said. “Lower your gun. It’s King Helmut’s dragon.”
“What?” the guy said.
The old man rushed toward us and stopped right in front of us. He had white wisps of hair tied into a ponytail. “How, how is it you are still alive?”
“Thank heavens,” Emanual said. “It’s a long story. If we can come in, we will explain everything.”
His eyes landed on Sir Robert, and the old man bowed down. “Sir Robert.”
“Charles? How is it you are still alive?”
I looked at Blake, who squinted at Charles. David’s rider?
“Rise.” Sir Robert helped the old man to get up.
His lower lip vibrated as he hugged Blake’s father and laughed. “Where are my manners? Come in, please.”
Emanual walked in first with the guy over his shoulder, and Dad kept me sort of behind him.
“Gertrude, put on the kettle,” the old man said, as the other guy was still in shock. He looked a lot like Dad. Emanual put the guy on the couch as a woman walked in and put two fingers against his neck. She closed her eyes and took a huge breath.
“He is okay,” Charles told her. “Tom will wake up. He refused to listen.”
She looked at Emanual first, and then Sir Robert and her eyes grew. Tears pooled in her gaze. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Charles said through laughter. “We were right about finding out. Can you please put on the kettle?”
She nodded and walked fast to the kitchen.
“Sit, sit.”
“After you. You need a chair more than us,” Emanual said.
“I got the essence. I might look old, but these old bones can still go miles. How? How is it that Goran never found you?” Charles asked Sir Robert as they all sat on chairs. Blake and I waited by the entrance as Dad took another seat.
“Jako Lemuir,” the guy said as he saw Dad.
Dad nodded.
“How, you left before the creepers?”
“Three royal dragons in my home.” Charles smiled as he stared at all of them.
“Make that four,” Sir Robert spoke. “The Rubicon is here too.”
Their gazes flickered to Blake, who still wore his hoodie.
“No, Goran told us he died.”
“He didn’t die,” Emanual sounded upset. “King Albert made sure of it.”
Charles’ Adams’ apple bobbed as he stared at Blake. “He can’t be here, Goran—”
“Goran can’t claim him anymore. He is already claimed,” Sir Robert said.
“By who?”
“King Albert and Queen Catherine’s daughter. Elena,” Dad said, reaching out his hand for me.
I walked to Dad, and they all stared at me before they bowed.
“Please, don’t do that,” I begged, and they straightened their bodies, looking at each other.
“When was the last time you heard anything from the king?” Sir Robert asked.
“We saw him at the last reaping. About a month ago.”
“He is alive,” Sir Robert breathed with his eyes closed.
“Dad, she told you he is alive.”
“I know, but anything could’ve happened in a month.”
“Remember what you promised.”
“We are so close.”
“It’s not a mission for the four of us. You promised.”
He nodded, and Sir Robert looked at Charles again. Blake took off his hoodie and all of them jumped from their chairs.
“Relax!” Emanual jumped up and Blake squinted as Charles held out his hands to the guy that looked like Dad.
“He is right!” Charles said. “The boy’s eyes are different.”
The guy stared at Blake and back at Charles, who nodded at him. He relaxed and sat back down on the chair. I wished my heart could get that memo.
“Who did you think he was?” Sir Robert asked.
“One of the council members that comes one a month. The boy is the spitting image of him.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. Billy is part of their family, son,” Charles said.
“Billy?” Sir Robert asked.
“Your nephew. He is one of Goran’s men. The boy is extremely gifted in the cruel division. I’m sorry to give you this sort of news.”
Sir Robert nodded as Blake stared at the back of the chair.
“Let’s just get back to what we need to know. So Albert was alive a month ago,” Emanual said.
Charles nodded.
“You didn’t know he was still alive, did you?” Charles’ son asked.
“No, we had no way of getting through the creepers. Only Elena can,” Emanual said.
“You look just like your father,” Charles said with a smile, and then it disappeared as he stared behind me. I turned around, but there was nothing. “Marcus, go get Annie.”
“Dad?”
“Go get Annie. She went to Maxine. She must still be there. Hurry!”
He got up and rushed out of the house.
“Annie?” Sir Robert asked.
“General Lee’s daughter.”
“Anouk?” Blake asked. “She is still alive?”
“She went through a lot. She has no other family here.”
“Is her father here too?” Sir Robert asked.
Charles shook his head. “He got executed about eleven years ago when he tried to free King Albert. It was a doomed cause. They had captured all the rebellion and Anouk was one of a few children they spared.”
“She was only eight,” Blake said.
“She went through a lot. Be gentle with her when you see her. She might not be the cousin that you remembered.”
“The bastards!” Sir Robert brushed his hands through his hair and left them on top of his head. I got what Charles was saying.
“A lot of our daughters went through what Annie went through. Some of them paid with their lives. We hid the younger ones in a bunker with some of the teenage girls they don’t know about yet, so that they don’t have to go through the same. The little ones don’t even know what stars or dragons look like. I tried to teach them, but it’s hard to grasp when they haven’t seen the real thing yet.”
“The basket,” I said, and Dad gave the basket to Charles.
“It’s from David.”
Tears pooled in Charles’ eyes. “My dragon is still alive?”
“He lives on the border of the creepers. He told us you died. There wouldn’t have been enough time to evacuate.”
“I got the deed to our farm a day earlier and left that same night. It was news to celebrate personally with family, not something you shared over the phone. I wanted to phone David and left it for later. We never got the latter. For the past fifteen years, I regretted not making that phone call.” His voice trembled.
“Well, he thought your son would notice his handwriting and he sent you a few things from the other side.”
Charles opened the basket and found the goodies that Connie had packed him. He tore open some sort of sponge cake and pushed half of it into his mouth. Everyone laughed at the grunting noises he made and my eyes flickered to Blake as he stared at nothing.
I stroked his stomach, and his gaze flickered to mine. “You okay?”
He smiled but didn’t shake or nod his head.
The door flung open as Charles started reading his note and a girl with short black hair froze as her eyes landed on Blake. She had a slight slant in her hooded eyes and had these beautiful red-brown spots in her dark irises.
“It’s not Billy, Annie.”
“Jelly-bean,” Blake whispered.
Her eyes grew as her mouth gaped. “Plucky!” She was in his arms and cried audibly as he hugged her tight. More people entered and kept head hopping over all of us.
“Billy?”
“It’s not Billy.” Marcus told the other woman that walked in. “It’s Blake, the Rubicon.”
“He looked just like—”
“It’s his cousin. There would be some resemblance.”
They walked in and for the next few minutes I kept listening to people saying the names of dragons they had thought perished a long time ago.
More chairs got pulled together to listen to everything that was going to be said. Annie finally let go of Blake and then hugged him again.
“You are really alive,” she whispered.
“Was Will one of them?”
She froze and stared at him. “One of who?”
“I’m not stupid. Tell me the truth!”
She looked past Blake at Charles. “You told them?”
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”
“Charles. I didn’t want—” She covered her eyes with her palms as her chin wobbled and lower lip vibrated. Blake wrapped her arms around her.
“It doesn’t matter. Your mother would give anything to see you again. To hold you like I’m holding you now. I never thought in a million years—”
“My mom is still alive.”
He nodded. “She misses you every single day.”
“She wouldn’t—”
“Anouk, she loves you. Doesn’t matter what happened. She would take any form of you.”
“Any form? This one. I lost her. I can’t shift anymore.”
“What?” Blake asked.
“It’s what they do with the dragons on this side.” Charles said. “There are only wyverns here. The dragons either get killed or broken beyond repair. Annie hadn’t shifted in a long time.”
“Anouk?” Blake sounded disappointed, and I frowned.
“It was life or death, Blake!”
He pulled her into his chest again. “It’s over now.”
“It will never be over. If he knows you are here, all of you, he will kill you!”
“He must try,” Sir Robert said and Annie gasped as she cupped her mouth. “Uncle Bob.”
He opened his arms, and she rushed to him. He held her tight. “You are going home, I promise. Your mother will not lose you too.”
“He is twenty times stronger than what he was fifteen years ago, Bob,” Marcus said. “Albert is no match for him. None of the men are. He keeps them alive, but only barely. I never saw King Albert in the condition he is at the moment.”
Sir Robert looked at him, still hugging Annie.
“This is your plan. Stick with it.” Dad looked at Sir Robert. “You said a month. Run the remaining time of it. It’s two more weeks.”
“Two weeks? To do what?” Charles asked.
“The creepers are coming down. It’s time Etan gets freed,” Sir Robert said.
“Freed? How many casualties are going to be lost?” Marcus yelled.
“Only soldiers, not civilians. That is the plan.”
“How are you going to execute this, Bob? What don’t you understand? He is stronger—” Charles pleaded.
“And we are plenty. He won’t be able to fight all of us at once. We need to talk about perimeters and whatever is left of Etan. Helmut is waiting for intel,” Emanual said.
“King Helmut?” Marcus said.
“He is with Paegeia, not his twin. His twin died the night he betrayed all of us.”
