I left Elena’s room early and sneaked through my window. Lucian paused in front of his mirror, gelling his hair. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Where do you think I was?”
His eyes grew. “If Longwei is going to find out, I’m with Elena. Fire is going to erupt, even if he isn’t a fire-breathing dragon.”
I lifted my shoulders. “Part of the dent. I feel off balance, worse than the elevators, when I’m not with her.”
“Oh, man.” Lucian sounded worried.
“Stop worrying. I’ll deal with it. Besides, stealth is my middle name.”
“Does Elena know you sneak into her room at night?”
I froze as I had my hand in my drawer to take out a pair of jeans and a shirt for today. “I’m sure she does, but she hasn’t voiced it yet.”
I slipped into the showers to get ready for today.
Lucian left with me to the cafeteria. He was like my secret keeper the way a dragon was a rider’s abilities keeper.
Elena wasn’t in the cafeteria yet, and I went to the buffet area to dish up. I found a spot at George and Jeff’s table. Brian was speaking in the third person again. He was such an idiot.
“So, Blake is taking a break from his precious.” He fluttered his eyelashes.
“I hope you are a dent, Brian Cooper. Then you can feel how it feels.”
“Yeah, Brian isn’t scared about that. There is only one dent in an era, and Blake is it. So Brian is free from that spell.”
“It’s not a spell.”
“Whatever Blake says. Brian has eyes. He sees how Blake has changed.”
“Shut up. Before I incinerate you.”
Jeff thought it was funny, but George was in thought. He was acting strange since orientation.
“You okay?” I asked, but George didn’t move. “George!”
He jumped, making Jeff and Brian laugh.
“Fuck off,” George said, with an irritating smirk on his lips. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep so well.”
“Dragons don’t need that much sleep. What is going on with you?”
“It’s nothing. Drop it.”
“Okay.” I dipped my fork into my egg and shoved it down my throat. A soft growl left George’s lips. My gaze flickered to his, and he got up. “I’ve got to go. See you, idiots, later.”
He took his tray and walked to the drop-off area as I watched him. Why the hell did he growl?
My eyes skidded toward the entrance, and Elena sat down at a table with my sister and her two roommates. The heaviness dissipated in my gut.
Jeff and Brain made a couple of jokes as I stared at them without a hint of a smile on my face. “I’m with George. You are fucking idiots.”
Arms wrapped around me, and Elena’s floral scent caressed my nose as her lips planted a kiss on my head. “Morning.”
“Idiot one and two.” I motioned at the two.
Brian reached out to Elena and shook her hand. “Name is Brian, and I just love your scent.”
“Brian!”
“What, I’m a Sun Blast. She is making me crazy.”
Laughter came from Elena. “Don’t worry. I’m sharing a room with one. I know how direct they are.”
“One of your roommates is a Sun Blast?”
“Yes, the one that says you’re verauriful,” Elena said.
I shook my head.
“What the fuck?” Jeff said, and Brian thought it was hilarious. I kicked them both underneath the table as Elena shook her head.
“Later.” She walked to the buffet area as I carried on eating my food. I gave her some space, even if she told me yesterday how she felt. Still, she wasn’t used to someone being her shadow twenty-four seven.
“It’s going to hail,” Sammy said as Elena sat back in her chair, and I didn’t get up to sit with them.
“You are so mean to your brother.”
“No, I’m not. Isn’t it getting a bit too much to always be in his presence?”
“You are kidding me. I’ll give my left tit to be in his presence all the time,” the Sun-Blast said.
“Ewe,” Sammy said.
“What?”
“He is my brother.”
“He is not mine.”
More laughter followed.
“You know he can hear you?” Sammy said.
“So what? No filter here.”
“I’m not that different from Vicky, Sammy. The only difference is, I get to keep my left boob, so I count myself lucky,” Elena said, and it put a smile on my face.
Their laughter grew softer as I tuned them out and enjoyed my breakfast. I’d see her in class.
ELENA
It was weird how Blake didn’t follow me this morning. He sat at a different table enjoying his breakfast with friends and then disappeared after he was done. It was such an abrupt change that I worried.
I went to my locker to grab the books for the first few periods. They were heavy. When I closed the locker’s door, I jumped as the snow dragon leaned against the locker next to mine. “What do you want, Tabitha?”
“What do I want? Oh, plenty of things, spawn. Let’s start with the most important one, my boyfriend.”
“He is not your boyfriend.”
“He feels obligated to be with you. I have eyes. I saw how he’s retreating.”
A slight humph left my lips as I turned around. Icy fingers clasped around my wrist, and she pulled me back. “I’m not done.”
“I am. Take your hands off me.”
“I told you before. He doesn’t know what he wants. A goody-good shoe like yourself does not know how to handle his needs. Needs that didn’t disappear. Let him go, set him free.”
This was enough. “Sweetheart, I gave him a choice, and he chose me.”
“Bullshit.”
“I swear. After he woke up, I gave him that choice. He chose me. If you don’t believe me, ask him.”
“Bullshit!” Her eyes became a shade bluer, and coldness spread up my wrist. It burned.
“You are hurting me. Let me go.”
“No, you will tell him it is over! He feels obligated to be with you because he is your dragon. You didn’t even tame him. So I can’t see how he can be your dragon. Let him go.”
The cold seeped up my arm, burning more. Little frost patterns glistened on my skin.
“Tabitha, please.” Wisps of clouds formed with each word, leaving my lips. My muscles shivered as the cold seeped through.
She still rambled in my face about the farce of a couple Blake and I made while my body grew colder and colder.
“Tabitha!” her one friend said. “Her lips are turning blue.”
“Oh, please, Blake is the Rubicon. He is the tenth snow dragon. She can handle a bit of cold.”
I tried to push my arm out of her grip, but I couldn’t. The cold seeped through too fast, and ice started crawling up my body.
“Tabitha, stop!” A boy with dark brown hair appeared.
She let me go.
“Fuck, what did you do? Go get Blake!” The guy’s eyes were enormous.
I couldn’t speak. Was I frozen? The thoughts appeared the same time the guy said them.
“No, she has the ability?” Tabitha said. “She is just playing around.”
“Does it look like she is playing around?” His words came out growly.
Her gaze flickered to me and back to the guy. “Dean, she is the Rubicon’s rider.”
“What is going on?” Lucian’s voice filled the area and drew a deep breath, gaping at me. His eyes grew as he looked at Tabitha.“What did you do?”
“She is immune to my snow!”
“Fuck! Elena, are you okay?” He touched my shoulders, and the horror knitted his eyebrows. He touched my cheek.
“She is not okay, Lu. I think she is frozen,” Dean said.
“She is playing. Snap out of it, you little brat!” Tabitha lifted her hand to slap me, but Dean stopped her.
“You released your snow! Tabitha, are you insane!”
“She is immune to it, Lucian.”
“Blake hasn’t received this ability yet. She is not immune. We need to get her to Constance now. Get Blake!”
Tabitha’s face turned more pallid than what it was as Lucian picked me up in the weirdest way. None of my limbs wanted to bend. I felt like a statue, cold and shivering. But the weirdest part, I could still hear and see everything. What the hell was wrong with me?
BLAKE
I walked into the classroom as the bell had just rang. I didn’t know where Elena was.
“Blake.” Dean rushed in behind me. “You need to go to the infirmary. It’s Elena.”
My stomach dropped as I dropped my bag. “What?”
“Tabitha. They had a quarrel. I tried to interfere, but it was too late.”
“What happened?” I rushed to the door and out into the hallway. Everyone twittered about the incident now.
“She released her snow on Elena, thinking that she owned it already.”
“Fuck!” I ran to the infirmary. I didn’t have my snow. What the hell is going to happen? Thoughts raced through my head as I rushed through the lobby and out the wooden door.
I tuned in and Lucian rambled about what happened.
“Where is Tabitha?” Master Longwei asked.
Where the hell was my sister? I didn’t even feel she was in danger and I voiced it only last night how scared I was about this. I entered the infirmary and saw Elena laying on the bed. Her limbs were stuck in a position with a white layer of snow glistened from her skin.
“I have to get word to her dad.”
“Go,” Constance said to Lucian, as she was busy with Elena.
He turned around and paused as he saw me at the front door.
“Where is Tabitha?” Master Longwei asked for a second time.
“Blake.” Lucian touched my arm. “Blake!”
My gaze flickered to his.
“I’m sorry.”
I shook my head and my feet lifted from the ground and rushed to her side. “What can I do?”
“You don’t have this ability yet,” my aunt said. “I don’t know.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I’m going to thaw her, and then we can treat the symptoms of what she is going through.”
“Will she be fine, Constance?” My voice didn’t even sound like mine anymore.
“I’ll try everything in my power.”
“It’s not enough! She is my dent.”
“I know, you need to calm down, otherwise I’m going to chase you out.”
“Sorry!” I pulled my hands through my hair. I shouldn’t have left her. Not with Tabitha’s threat still looming over her.
Dean stood by the door. I walked over to him. “What the hell happened?”
“I didn’t hear everything. Tabitha was busy with Elena. I didn’t think she would do this. Susan voiced her lips, turning blue. That was when I stepped in. It happened so fast. She was speaking, and then it just stopped.
“I told her to stop. Tabitha wasn’t herself, and she kept saying Elena was faking it. She had the ability. She didn’t stop. When Lu came, and he told her she wasn’t faking, you don’t have the ability yet. That was when she let go of her hand, but it was too late. I’m sorry, Blake.”
My jaw muscles pumped. “Where is Tabitha?”
“Master Longwei has summoned her. I think she is long gone. Her face spoke a lot of words when she discovered you don’t have this ability yet.”
I growled.
Lucian came back. “Herbert and my dad are on their way. Blake, she will be okay. She has to be okay.”
“I need Tabitha!”
“No, not when you are like this. You will incinerate her.”
“She fucking deserves it, Lu.”
“Blake, calm the fuck down. She didn’t know. Her actions might not have been the same if she knew.”
“It’s not a fucking accident. She is my dent.” I pointed back at the door.
“We know. Let Constance do her job and wait for my dad and Herbert.”
I never felt so helpless, but Lucian was right.
My sister and Vicky rushed out the door. The news must’ve spread through the entire fucking Dragonia. It would only be a matter of time before the reporters were going to show up and make a spectrum about this.
“The bitch froze her!” Sammy shrieked.
“Your brother doesn’t have that ability yet. She is not immune, Sammy,” Lucian said.
She cupped her face. “What the fuck now!”
“I don’t know.”
Tears welled up in Sammy’s eyes. “Is she going to be okay?” Her gaze found mine sitting against the wall outside the infirmary and she rushed to me. She crouched down. “You okay?”
My gaze flickered to her. “Do I fucking look okay?”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Where the hell were you? How could you leave her alone?”
“Are you blaming me? Where the hell were you?” Tears glistened in Sammy’s eyes.
“Giving her fucking space, Samantha.” The tears rolled down my cheek.
Regret to what she said embedded in her eyebrows, eyes, mouth lines, every single feature of her face. She wrapped her arms around me. “I’m sorry. I should’ve never said those things or made fun of it. You are a dent. I don’t know how that feels.”
Sobs shook my shoulders as I clung to my sister.
“Constance will fix her. She is the princess of Paegeia. She has a fleet behind her.”
I couldn’t see how, as I didn’t have this ability yet. I wasn’t immune and I couldn’t help her. Heaviness descended on my gut and shoulders. I felt so fucking helpless.
“Son!” Helmut’s voice came from the gate, and Jaco ran to the infirmary.
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?” He spoke at the entrance. “No!” His voice broke. “What happened?”
“Jaco, please, let me do my job.”
“Someone froze her. How? She is Blake’s rider.”
“He doesn’t have this ability yet.”
“Fuck!” The reality dawned on Jaco too, whatever this meant, and he groaned.
“She is not dead, for crying out loud. Get out of this infirmary now if you can’t handle this.”
“I’m her—”
“I’m trying to save her life, out!”
Jaco stormed out of the infirmary, and Helmut touched his shoulder while her father sobbed.
A carriage stopped, and Queen Maggie climbed out and rushed to the infirmary. She stopped in her steps as she saw Jaco crying.
“No, no, she can’t be—”
“Mom, calm down. She isn’t. She got frozen. Blake doesn’t have this ability yet, and Constance is doing everything she can. Has this never happened before?”
“No, Lucian. It never happened before as a dragon only has one fucking ability. And the riders ascend if they get hit with that ability. The rest had died.”
“Why didn’t my fire protect her?” I asked.
“Because you were in your human form. Elena doesn’t know how to wield her ability when you are in your human form. Hence the dual classes. You learn how to do that,” Maggie said.
More tears pricked in my eyes. My worst fear came true, and we weren’t even close to saving her father. I could never save him without her, as I couldn’t go near the creepers. They fight like mad.
“Who did this to her?” Jaco demanded from Lucian as he wiped his tears.
“A snow dragon.”
Jaco’s eyes skidded to me. “Is she a friend of yours?”
“Yeah, it’s my fault that your daughter got frozen.”
“Don’t do this.” Helmut stopped Jaco. “We didn’t know she existed. He is her dent. None of us know how he feels.”
“Where were you?” Jaco asked.
“Giving her space. It’s difficult for her to have me around every second of the bloody day. So I gave her space.”
Jaco closed his eyes.
I was sure that Tabitha used it to her advantage. She must have seen me sitting alone and somehow got it in her head that some spell forced me to be with Elena. That fucking bitch.
“I want to see her. I need to speak to her,” Jaco demanded.
“It won’t do any good now. Your daughter got hit with an ability her dragon doesn’t have. Did this girl know this, son?” Helmut asked.
“She didn’t, Dad. I saw it on her face. She thought Elena was faking it.”
Helmut sighed. “Where is she?”
“We think with Master Longwei. We don’t know.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Jaco said and walked to the entrance of the castle. The king followed as he waved at Lucian that he would speak to him later.
I couldn’t think as I kept seeing Elena’s body frozen on that bed. I should’ve never left her. She was mine to protect, and I failed. I wiped a tear from my face. How the fuck was I going to get her through this?
