Lucian didn’t come, and I made him wait. He was such an idiot. She would give anything to see him and I couldn’t help but wonder what the dent was. What made her affection changed? I would not tell Lucian either that she had dented.
He needed to treat her like the protector she was. I don’t care how hard it was for him. If I could trust Blake after everything I thought happened, he could learn to trust her as well.
I found Lucian sitting with Blake as I entered.
“And?”
“And what?”
“What does she say?”
“Like a pillar fell on her. Are you going to see her, say thank you, or is it just a dragon’s duty to save your life and wait for the next time?”
“Elena?”
“Don’t Elena me, Lu. She saved your life. Go thank her.”
He mumbled and got up. “Thanks for nothing.”
“And tell her how you feel. Give that a try.”
He mumbled more, but without enhanced hearing, I did not know what he said.
“Okay, Sleeping Beauty, enough. It’s time for you to wake up too. It’s boring without you.” I fiddled with my hands.
“Even my dad is getting fatter while you are sleeping. You always sleep.” A gentle huff of air passed through my lips. “Tabitha dented, but I will not tell Lucian. It’s so hilarious how he sulks. He likes her too much, if you ask me. I don’t think it would be that long.” I told him everything that had happened today, and that she was a nice person underneath all that snow. She was beautiful too, and I complained a bit about how perfect she looked when she transformed back and I found her in a bed.
“I hope he went and said thank you and not went to his room. See why I need you? I don’t have enhanced hearing,” I whispered.
I spoke to him until his mom came to check up on him and I left to go say goodnight to my real dad.
He told me a story about how he met my mother. It sounded like a real Cinderella story of a commoner stealing the heart of a prince.
“She had me when she waltzed up to the imposter to tell him just what she was thinking?”
“She did not know it was you?”
“No, the masks of that time were over the top, and to be just a normal noble for the night, I had to choose an extravagant one to hide who I was. I fell in love so fast, and I never got my heart back after that night. Well, she left me with you,” he said and kissed me on my head. “Tomorrow night, I’ll tell you part two, as I only saw her two years later.”
“What?”
He bubbled with laughter. “It’s a brilliant story.”
“You are such a party pooper.”
“That is a dad’s speciality,” he spoke in a tight mouth, sounding British.
He was hilarious. I bid him goodnight and traipsed to Dad’s room. He was reading on his tablet, laying on his bed.
His lips quirked as I entered. “You are wonderful with him, Bear.”
“He calls me cub.”
“Cause I call you bear.”
“I don’t mind the least. It’s easy to love him. He has a way—”
“You don’t have to tell me. He is a real joker. You should’ve seen the pranks he used to have as a child, and it never stopped.”
I laughed.
“He has changed little.”
“He still gets nightmares,” I said.
“It will pass. I just don’t know if he is ready for tomorrow.”
I looked at my dad. “What is happening tomorrow?”
“He has to go in front of the ancients.”
“Why? What reason?”
“I don’t know.”
“I thought they only come if the kings don’t get along.”
“Yeah, well, that is not the case this time. Caleb would never go behind his back.”
“You know, he and Duclin have some sort of arrangement.”
“What?”
“Dad mentioned something like that when he chastised Caleb for his faults, not believing me and so forth. Caleb tried to annul Blake and I, not Duclin.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Elena. Your father is back now. Caleb would never go behind his back to the ancients.”
I sighed. “I want to go with them.”
“Elena?”
“No, he is my father. I want to go with him.”
“He is going to kill me for telling you.”
“You didn’t know that I knew. If Sir Robert is going with him, I’m going with too.”
“Fine, just give me breakfast to break it to him, please?”
“Okay, love you.” I kissed him on the head and said goodnight before walking back to my Sleeping Beauty and crawled into bed with him. I didn’t care what my dad or the other one was going to say. One seemed to be fine. Blake was my dent. The other one was still a grouch, but I knew deep down inside he was begging Blake to wake up through some sort of special dragon call, or I hoped.
The next morning, Dad wasn’t happy that I knew.
“I thought she knew,” Dad H said.
“I don’t have a wife who bust my gahoonies anymore. You want to tell me I’m going to co-parent with you now? Run everything by you and come up with what is best for her?”
Everyone sniggered around the table as Dad H’s lips curved. “I’m sorry, Albert.”
“You are supposed to be the grandfather, not the other dad, Jako.”
“I love you both. That should be enough.”
Dad A looked at me. “You want to go.”
“Yes, I will not leave you to them.”
“Not all of them are supposed to be that bad.”
My lips quirked.
“I knew he would not stay away.”
A fit of laughter broke out at the look on Dad’s face.
“Who is he to Kate?” the queen asked.
“My lips are sealed. But it seems like the affection only lies with the Malone women and not the men,” Dad said. “Okay, fine, but I don’t want to hear anything about why I didn’t tell you.”
I crossed my heart and sat down to eat a plate of breakfast, too.
After, we went to the city hall in Tith.
My father and Sir Robert were muttering. His recovery was going exceptional, but the cane was still at his side.
“The Council and Ancients have changed. I can’t prepare you for what you are about to find,” Sir Robert said, sitting across from Dad in the carriage.
“We’ve all changed.”
Sir Robert then went into detail about the changes and he mentioned the Dragon Law a lot. My father’s face slacked from all emotion and then the slight pulse on his jaw line came.
“They disrespected the Dragon Law?”
“They use it however they see fit.”
“Robert, how could you just let them do that?” All the jokes were gone.
“How, you really want me to answer that?”
My father stared at him. I knew now what they meant about my father and Sir Robert sharing their own different bond. They lifted each other’s spirits. He bent over and leaned with his forehead against Sir Robert’s. “Even if I was dead. You had responsibilities to all dragons.”
“They tortured me because they thought I was the one that betrayed you. If it wasn’t for Helmut…”
My flesh erupted with goosebumps.
My father took a deep breath and sat back in his seat.
“Even if I wanted to, they wouldn’t have listened to me. If Blake wasn’t the Rubicon, believe me, my family wouldn’t be here today.”
My father turned his head and stared out the window, thinking. Maybe it had sunk in how much everything had changed.
The carriage landed in front of the city hall, and reporters rushed toward us. My heartbeat picked up, but my father, even if he felt the way I did, didn’t show it.
Sir Robert climbed out first and cameras went off. I huffed when they addressed him as Sir Robert again, asking him many questions.
My father closed the door. “What is that about?”
“Didn’t you hear what they did to him, Dad? They’ve only addressed him as Sir Robert again the day everyone found out you were still alive. Actually, not even then. It was the day they reunited you with him.”
He frowned first, then closed his eyes as his jaw muscles pumped.
“You don’t have to be here today. Wait, see what they’ve become like first. Prepare yourself, please?”
He smiled and touched my face. “It’s good to have someone that cares again. I’ll be fine.” He took a deep breath and opened the door.
I feared he wasn’t ready for any of this, but to be honest, I wasn’t ready for what followed, either.
My father smiled, waved and even stopped to shake hands with some reporters. He spoke to them as if they were humans, not cockroaches. He answered so many questions as he walked to the entrance of City Hall. They all laughed at his responses. It was as if he was a different type of dragon breed himself, one that charmed everyone, that made them forget what they were, and about their job.
I smiled.
Sir Robert caught the admiration on my face. “Now you know why everyone called him the Greatest King.”
“Because of the way he spoke to reporters?”
A chuckle bubbled from Sir Robert’s throat as my father wrapped his arms around an older lady to take a picture. “No, because your father treated everyone as if they were someone important.”
I looked at my father again. He sure was amazing with all of them.
When we reached the stairs, my father turned around, waved at everyone, and held out his hand for mine. I took it and we went up the steps to the entrance.
Everyone on the Council bowed as my father entered. He also bowed and went over to one of the two chairs that were in front of the Ancients, who weren’t on their thrones yet.
I sat next to him.
Sir Robert was not standing behind my father. It bothered him, and he looked at me through narrowed eyes.
“Told you,” I said in a hush tone and my father’s face turned emotionless, as if my reply just didn’t bother him anymore.
He looked at me again as the Ancients walked through the doors and took their seats.
Papi smiled as he saw me, and nodded toward my father, who nodded back.
They all addressed my father like they did with everyone, nothing special, like he deserved.
“This hearing is to verify if we are sitting with the actual king of Paegeia or an imposter,” Duclin said.
My mouth gaped as Dad looked at them as if they were speaking about a football match and not whether he was the real King Albert or an imposter.
The allegations sounded preposterous, making Dad sound as if he was a spy for Goran. Dad let them speak as gasps and heads shaking, staring at the Ancients in shock.
“It’s our duty to question these things. The false prophecies that we got during the years that the Malone bloodline is not extinct were more than you can imagine.”
“Let me guess. Goran put you up to this?”
“We had a hearing, and he mentioned something like this.”
“As he knows, I have no records on this side, and whatever records we had, he made sure that it got destroyed.”
“We have to choose what is best for Paegeia. And if, in fact, there is any truth to Goran’s claim, I’m afraid it’s the end of the Malone reign. All in favor?” Duclin asked.
A few members of the council lifted their hands. The scientist that refused to believe that I was who I said sat among them.
Dad huffed. I knew what this meant, but he lifted his hand. “Not so fast. If I prove that I’m the king of Paegeia, that my bloodline is Malone, you would stop this ludicrous.”
“It’s not ludicrous if we want what is best for Paegeia. It has to be correct, and we both know there are no records on this side that can prove who you say you are.”
“I missed the times when your word was enough, but we knew this time would come, where your word would not be enough, so we prepared. A vault that Goran doesn’t know about. On this side of Paegeia. We put it this side so that one day my daughter doesn’t have to fend for herself and begged the other royals for wealth or to look after her.”
Duclin’s lips thinned.
“We created the vault not just for her, but to prove that she is who she claimed she is, as we can only open it with our blood. Something you can’t fake. The vault would not open if we weren’t Malone. I’ve signed the deed over with my bank manager and he would bring you the original documents that both Kate and I had signed years ago. Would something like that be efficient enough for you?”
“If something like that exists. I don’t see why not,” Papi spoke before Duclin could say a thing.
My dad bowed his head and got up. “I’ll plan for that to happen as soon as possible. Until then, I will keep you posted.”
“It has to be in the next forty-eight hours, Albert.” Duclin spoke and Dad bowed again as I stared at Duclin. He would do anything to prove that dad wasn’t the king of Paegeia.
We walked out, and then all the council members walked out behind us.
Nobody said a word until we get to the carriage.
When we were in the air, Sir Robert spoke. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to go to the other side of the wall and find Craven Haultser. It’s strange why he hadn’t made contact yet. The last time he was in Florida. Let’s hope he didn’t relocate. His firm holds the deed.”
Sir Robert nodded and the minute we landed, he parted ways and took to the sky and I hoped he could get to this man in the next forty-eight hours.
