Annie, Constance, and Isabel came to the castle. Annie rushed over to me and I introduced her to my mom.
“The Sun-Blast that was always with Blake?” Mom looked at me.
“That would be me. I just wish she would make an appearance now.”
“I heard what they did to the dragons on that side. I’m so sorry.” Mom touched Annie’s arm and rubbed it.
She shook her head. “I feel sorry for any wyvern that is going to try their luck tonight here with you guarding the castle.”
Mom’s cheeks reddened. “I’m afraid my war days are over, but to protect my adopted spawn, I’ll devour any wyvern that thinks otherwise.”
The hours ticked by, and I wondered what Blake was doing now. I felt restless.
Queen Maggie started counting off and everyone that could recite a protection spell stood in front of the windows.
Lucian and Tabitha sat against a wall, not speaking to each other.
When she counted to one o’clock, nothing happened. Mom had Annie and me next to her.
Then, suddenly, the rumble came. Everyone in front of the windows kept holding their hands in the air, their lips moved fast. It shuddered like mad, but it didn’t break. The rumble grew quiet.
“The creepers are down. Be alert,” Queen Maggie said. She looked bad ass with tight leather pants and a vest with high knee fighting boots on.
It was so quiet, too quiet if you asked me. Annie was deep in thought, sitting next to me. I wondered maybe I should’ve let the queen put us in that ballroom, but I had all this training. I couldn’t sit this one out, either.
I hated the silence and looked at my watch. It was almost two. The screams of guards came, and a few dragons exploded out of their skin.
Mom stayed with us as soldiers and dragons left on Queen Maggie’s command. She walked over to us, and Lucian and Tabitha came closer, too. Something told me that the ice queen would not become a dragon tonight.
Isabel and Constance already stood guard in their dragon forms.
“Mom.”
“Nothing is going to happen, Anouk. Just stay safe.” Constance’s silver scales glistened in the chandelier that the queen switched on.
Annie nodded and I bet the one thing she wished for now was her dragon.
The queen hugged Lucian and kissed Tabitha on top of her head. The girl looked as if she was going to run away any moment, or maybe it was because of the affectionate side of the queen that she wasn’t used to. Well, if Queen Maggie’s affection wouldn’t melt her heart, then nothing would.
She looked at Mom. “I know Kate is not here, but I’m begging you. If need be.”
“Just like old times,” Mom said.
The queen smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Tanya.”
Just like old times? I remembered Queen Maggie telling me how Mom used to take her and my birth mother up in the sky. The queen didn’t have a dragon, that was what she had meant.
All the glass in the foyer shuddered. Then it crashed and a dragon and wyvern crashed on the marble floor. More wyverns flew through the open gaps.
“Tabitha!” Lucian said, and she morphed into her dragon form, leaving a pile of shredded clothes scattered on the floor. He jumped on her back and they both unleashed their snow spears. Black and green wyverns with eagle looking beaks flew back in mid-air as the spikes speared through their bodies and into the walls.
They were a great team, even if they hadn’t found each other yet.
“Cover your ears!” Mom morphed into a gigantic Green-Vapor and mumbled Latin words filled the air. I covered my ears harder, afraid that it would influence me.
Green magic light swirled from her mouth and her eyes glowed a bright green. The wyverns in front of her hovered in the air, flapping their wings and their eyes became green.
My heart pounded behind my ribcage.
The wyverns turned to each other and started ripping at each other’s wings and throats.
Mom looked back and roared. Annie grabbed my hand, and we ran, trying to make it to the ballroom that they had sealed off, filled with women and children.
A guy grabbed Annie, and I kneed him in the groin. He fell to his knees, grunting as we ran down the halls.
A cry made me turn around and two wyverns followed us as they flew through the hallways, turning their bodies sideways so that they could get through the narrow spaces.
My palm heated and pink fire danced on it. I unleashed the ball of fire against the one, and it shrieked as the fire spread like an orange and black coat, unraveling the essence of what the wyvern was and the ash flew away in the sky. The other wyvern stopped mid-air and crashed through the first window it could find.
“Elena!” Annie sounded petrified. I looked and found a man behind her, with a knife against her throat.
A blunt weapon connected with the back of my head, and pain vibrated through my entire skull and seared through my body.
I willed myself to stay awake as I crashed to the floor, but the darkness was stronger. It swallowed me whole and the last thing I remembered was Annie screaming.
I woke up on a bed. The room was barely lit.
“Oh, thank heavens you are okay,” Mom said and planted her lips on my head.
“What happened? Where is Annie?” I tried to push myself up, but the pain in my head pounded.
“Easy,” Mom said as Constance walked into the room and clutched her heart, taking a deep breath. “Thank you,” she said at the ceiling.
“Where is Annie?”
“Shhh, she is fine.” Mom tapped my arm.
Constance looked at me. “When she saw you go down, she shifted. How is your head?”
“The head is not as bad as I thought it would feel when hit with an object. Is everyone okay?”
“A lot of dragons had lost their lives. There were too many wyverns, but some of the fleet retreated and came to help. We are all good.”
“Tabitha isn’t good,” Mom said.
“Tabitha, what happened?”
“She did her duty as a dragon,” Constance said.
“She is dead!”
“She saved Lucian when one pillar was about to fall on him, pushed him out of the way, and crushed her.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as my hands flung to cover my mouth.
“She is still breathing,” Constance said. “Thank heavens you are okay. I don’t want to be the one to tell Blake that you didn’t make it.”
My throat dried. “They are not back yet?”
“Relax, it’s a few hours to get to Sovereign and from what the farmers told me, Goran grew in strength. Give them more time.”
I got up, spinning head and all.
“Take it easy, Elena. Relax.” Constance touched my head, and the buzzing from her healing ability warmed up my head. The pain washed away, and I felt normal.
“How does that feel?”
“Much better.”
The door opened and Annie stopped as her eyes landed on mine. Tears filled her eyes, and she rushed over to me. Her body slammed against mine as she grabbed me around my shoulders. “You are okay.”
“Thanks to you. I heard she came back.”
“She took her sweet bloody time, though.”
Amusement flushed through the air at her comment, and Annie cut free a laugh.
“Something tells me she made it with time to spare,” I said.
Annie smiled as she wiped a tear.
“Where are the queen and Lucian? Isabel?” I looked at Mom and Constance.
“With Tabitha’s dragon form,” Constance replied.
“I’ll take you.” Annie looked at her mom. “Is she good to go?”
“She is fine, medically.”
We rushed out of the room. Magic sparkles danced on the walls. Putting every speck of glass and brick of the wall back in place. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, but Annie kept yanking me past the foyer toward the east wing. She opened a door and Tabitha’s figure filled half the area. Her dragon figure didn’t look that big inside the ring that time Lucian faced her or in the foyer. She wasn’t half the size of Blake, either. But she was still big.
Lucian paced the length in thought. When I reached him I touched his arm, and the relief washed over his face as he hugged me.
“I thought you don’t care about Tabitha,” I said.
“I care about the dragon inside of her.”
“It is her, Lucian.”
His lips twitched downward and looked away.
“You are crazy about her. Just admit it.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“She didn’t think twice about pushing me out of the way. She knew what was coming, and she didn’t flee.”
“Because Blake isn’t the only one that rubbed off on me, Lu. She is a royal dragon now, and she might act dumb, but she isn’t. She is actually extremely smart, according to my professors.”
Lucian’s lips curved. “I know that.”
“She knows her duty. You are the prince of Tith. She is your dragon whether she wants it. She didn’t want to fail you and stop sulking in front of her as if you were stuck with her. You won’t die if you have a good chat with her.”
“If she is going to wake up.”
“She will.” I brushed my hands through my hair as I worried about my dragon and husband’s fate.
“Elena, thank heavens.” Isabel walked over and wrapped her arms around me. “Annie told me you used your fire.”
I nodded.
“Good, one less wyvern to worry about.”
“Elena!” the queen said and rushed with fast strides over to me. She grabbed me tight and kissed me everywhere on my face.
“Mom!”
“Oh, shush,” Isabel said and Lucian looked a bit taken aback, which made us snort behind closed lips.
He lifted his hands with a slight curve on the corner of his lips.
“I’m so glad that you are okay,” the queen said.
“It was just a bump on the head.” I touched my head. “Which had disappeared, thanks to Constance. How many have lost their lives?”
“A few dragons that Helmut stationed on the towers, but the women and children are safe. I can’t say much for the wyverns,” the queen replied.
“They deserve it for thinking that they could come and harm us. Has anyone got in touch with Dragonia?”
“No, thanks for reminding me. Lucian!” the queen called, and he looked at me.
“I’ll stay with her.”
“Thanks,” he mouthed.
“That boy tries hard to put up an ‘I-don’t-care-front’ in front of his one,” Isabel said, pointing at Tabitha’s sleeping figure.
Annie tsked. “Typical male.”
“Take that back. Your cousin is quite loose with his tongue when saying what is in his heart,” I said with a quirk in my lips.
“He wasn’t always like that.” Isabel’s smile disappeared.
“Have you heard anything?”
She shook her head, and the worry pulled at the corner of her lips and eyes. I felt like an idiot. I only have a husband. She has a husband and a son she could lose.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tight. Wishing time would pass faster so that we could have them back.
