The elevator opened into Dad’s office as I ran for the vault. I rushed into the room, but there was no commotion. Dad and Sir Robert were conversing in front of a closed vault against the wall.
Dad looked at me. “Elena.”
“It wasn’t a distraction?”
“No, thank heavens. The wyvern was just careless. I love the way you think.” He killed the gap between us and reached out for my cheek, touching it with a warm hand. The corner of his lips tugged upward. “You got that from your mother. I feel so lost running this world without her. What are you doing here?”
I brushed my hand over his. “Thought if Blake was here, I could claim him. Mind if I stay tonight just in case?”
He nodded. “If he comes, he has a sphere on him. He wears it like a harness. It’s red, and it glows. It’s how Goran pulls him back. If you want to claim him, Elena, make sure you destroy that sphere first.”
A sphere? I could see Blake wearing it around his torso the way Dad had explained it. It was how Goran had pulled him back.
“Goran doesn’t know when Blake is in danger. Blake has to hit the sphere when there is no way out.”
“Destroy the sphere, got it.” My gaze flickered on the vault. “Is the sword still in the vault?”
“It is,” Dad said. “Reveal yourself.”
“Stop,” Sir Robert said. “It’s the third time you’ve done that. He is not here.”
The effect rippled like an invisible wall in front of us, but it didn’t move backward. It disappeared. There wasn’t anything hiding around us.
“So the wyvern is not with him?” I asked.
Dad shook his head.
“He didn’t call the wyvern back.” Sir Robert’s eyebrows furrowed and then he looked at Dad. “How did he disappear?”
“I don’t know,” Dad replied.
“So, there is still time?” I asked.
Dad nodded. “We are going to find them tonight.”
One of King Helmut’s guards walked into the office. He was wearing an opt suit with the blue and white colors of Tith patched on his shoulders. “We are ready.”
Dad nodded, then winked at me as he followed the guard out of the office.
I went up to my room and felt so alone. Mom’s photos stared at me, still the same. I wished she was here, too.
I missed Blake, always worried about what he was doing. If Goran was at least nice to him. Then again, Blake was the Rubicon. He had gifts I hoped that Goran feared.
I walked over to my bathroom and opened the taps. That Blake didn’t know me bothered me more than I wanted to let on.
When the tub was halfway filled, I disrobed and climbed into the warm water, hoping it would soothe my tight-strung muscles.
Tabitha could be blind.
My gaze flickered to the ground, to my Cammy that was partially hidden from the pile of clothes on the floor.
I reached out and grabbed it. I unlocked the screen and swiped through to my messages. There was no update from Lu or Becky about Tabitha’s condition. I opened Blake’s texts and read through the last one he’d sent me.
The urge in me bubbled to hear his voice. I hit the button to connect with his Cammy. It didn’t even ring.
I doubted Blake had his Cammy with him. My finger pressed the recording button, and I brought the mic to my lips and whispered my message.
“Come home. You promised infinity, Blake. Snap out of it. You are the bloody Rubicon.” Tears rolled down my cheeks as I sent him that text.
I sent another text to Becky asking how Tabitha was doing.
She sent me one back pretty fast. “Sleeping.”
“Thanks, just keep me informed if there are any changes.”
“I will. Lu wants to know if the sword is still safe.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t a distraction.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
I didn’t reply and put the Cammy back on the edge of the bath.
After my bath, I searched for my father. I found him around the kitchen table with the other two kings.
I walked to them. Dad got up from his chair and pulled the chair at the edge of the island next to him as King Caleb still spoke about his fleet and all the preparations he’d made to capture Goran.
I waited till the King of Areeth finished.
“Any news?”
“None,” Dad said and poured me a Coke.
“Thanks.” I took it as what had happened to Tabitha clouded my mind.
“The girl is really blind?” King Caleb asked.
“We don’t know. Maggie is with her,” King Helmut said. “Lucian said that she didn’t even think twice when Elena saw the wyvern. She didn’t even wait for him. She reminds me so much of Yvonne.”
King Caleb laughed. “Yeah, he learned what a backbone was when I claimed him.”
“He was a brave dragon, Caleb. One of the best in our fleet,” Dad said.
“I miss him.”
“I can imagine,” King Helmut took a sip of his brandy. “I can’t imagine my life without Emanual.”
“Or me without Robert,” Dad said.
“I feel exactly the same,” I said. “So what you said this evening scared me shitless. It’s not Blake, Dad.”
His fingers brushed my cheek. “Sorry, sweet pea. It’s not Blake indeed. We have to take precautions, and remember when you face him, he will tell you anything to get back to Goran. It won’t be him until he yields, Elena.”
I nodded. “Just promise me, you won’t kill him, Dad.”
“I’m not stupid. But he is highly dangerous. His pink kiss—”
“It’s mine. Not his. I’m immune to it.”
“Others aren’t.”
“It’s why I have to be here if he comes.”
Dad sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “I know. I’m sorry that I’m so protective. It’s hard for me.”
A huff passed through my lips. “I can relate. I almost lost it when I discovered that he almost killed you and his father. He would never forgive himself.” My voice faltered.
Dad pulled me in for a side hug, and his lips lingered on top of my head.
Plenty of guards came and went. Sir Robert was out there too, with Dad Herbert. The other kings finally left, and I looked at my watch. It was just after two in the morning.
Blake would not come tonight.
I said goodnight and went to my room. The tiredness consumed me as what happened tonight finally washed from my system.
I dreamt of nothing. When my alarm went off, I got dressed and ready for the day. I hunted down my father and found him with Sir Robert in his office.
“We need that meeting. Call them back,” Sir Robert said, parading Dad’s office. I sometimes forget that Blake is his son. He must be worried sick about him.
“Any news?”
Sir Robert’s gaze flickered to mine. His lips barely tucked upward. “Morning, Elena. No, none.”
“So finding Goran didn’t work. The spell was useless.” The frustration rolled off me in waves.
“It didn’t,” Sir Robert said. “We lost an entire search party. It wasn’t big enough to take on Goran. Casualties were still high. A lot of wyverns died, but we lost that entire party. Blake is not among the casualties, but he had his hand in this one, Elena. There were heaps of ash everywhere.”
A shiver ran up my spine. “He attacked the search party?”
“He protects Goran, thinking he is you, Elena,” Dad Albert said, sitting in thought behind his desk. “He would do anything for him now.”
“Even kill?”
Dad nodded.
I ground on my teeth. He was going to get a tremendous surprise when he met me.
“We don’t give up, but Goran knows we know he is shielding them off with spells. He’ll take countermeasures.”
“Meaning there are other ways to hide them?” I asked. Goran was always twenty steps in front of us.
Dad nodded. “Stronger ways.”
“Are the Elementals with him?”
“We don’t know. Blake is not coming today. They are too busy finding a new place and taking precautions. Go back to the academy. I’ll phone if we have them,” Dad said.
I nodded and walked to the elevator.
Dad strapped me in.
“Is Dad Herbert okay?”
“It wasn’t his search party. I would’ve told you if it was.”
“Thank heavens for miracles.”
“He sends his love.” Dad kissed me on the head when the clasp clicked into place. He closed the doors, and the darkness was so suffocating.
The red button flickered green, and the elevator dropped.
I jolted forward in my seat a few times and then it stopped. It’s funny how insignificant a portal elevator seemed now that danger was lurking around us. The doors opened in Master Longwei’s office as my mind went back to all the things I could’ve done differently with Blake’s claiming.
“Elena,” Master Longwei said.
I smiled and unhooked the straps from my shoulders. “How is Tabitha?”
“We will know in a few days. The best is to wait and see.”
I nodded.
“I take it he didn’t show.”
“No, it wasn’t a diversion. Any news on the wyvern?”
“Nothing. Sir Edward and Professor Gregory led a small party last night, till early this morning. There is no sign of him on Dragonia grounds.”
So George, Annie, and Jeff didn’t find him.
I left his office and went to the infirmary. Tabitha’s laughter sounded in my ears, and I found Lucian and Sammy with her.
She still had the patches over her eyes. I could only imagine how hard it was not to see. I hated the darkness.
A part of me felt as if it was my fault. If I didn’t blurt out that the wyvern was there, she wouldn’t have followed without Lucian. She would still have her sight. I’d failed her too.
I turned around thinking about Blake, how I’d failed him. He’d killed an entire fleet. What was he going to do when his memory returned?
Stop, Elena. It wasn’t him. I needed to get my mind to think positive again, otherwise I might as well give up now.
I understood what Papi meant by it couldn’t be me that was going to take Blake’s place. He’d need me to make peace with all the shit he’s done under Goran’s spell.
Still, I was going to claim him.
I went to the Parthenon Dome instead and started practicing with stars and axes. I needed tiny objects and needed to learn how to destroy a target, as I doubted I would get closer to Blake.
The door opened, and Annie walked in. Her lips quirked slightly as she found me. “Thought I would find you here.”
I stopped for a few seconds. “You okay?”
“Yeah, the wyvern had the help of a hippogriff, Elena.”
“What?”
“They are very rare. Master Longwei thinks she is part of the shifter race and doesn’t belong to the hippogriffs.”
“Let me guess, they are dangerous.”
“Yeah, they have a stinger at the end of their tail. The venom in there can kill you in seconds. My mom’s healing ability won’t even be able to heal that person.”
I got where she was going with this. She felt guilty that they had gotten away on their watch.
“Annie, you don’t have to justify anything to me. I know wyverns have a dark surface and that they are not to be trusted. We are just students, for crying out loud.”
“I know, but if we had them, the Elementals would be safe, and now Goran is going to summon the Saadedine.”
“Yeah, my father thinks Goran doesn’t have the Elementals yet. There is still time.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “Give yourself some slack. After what you’ve been through on the other side, and now—”
“It’s my cousin. I can’t lose him.”
“I know how you feel. I can’t lose him either. We will get him back. Even if it’s the last thing I do. I promise.”
She nodded, and then we hugged it out. She sniffed and wiped her eyes as the hug broke. “What are you doing here?”
“Apparently, Goran has gifted your cousin with a sphere that can call him back. I’m training how to destroy small objects from a distance, so that I can claim your cousin the next time we meet.”
She shook her head. “He will not stop.”
“I’m not giving up. Not on Blake. He is not Goran’s dragon. He is mine.”
Annie helped me for the next hour. Retrieving the stars and knives as they barely hit the target.
I drilled it into me for the next hour that it wasn’t Blake. It was the person holding me from him, and I would destroy that person to get to the man I loved.
I didn’t care if he wouldn’t have hands if I disfigured him. The only thing I cared about was destroying his darkness.
I sounded dark just thinking about dismantling the love of my life. Something was wrong with me, too. It was because we were apart. I couldn’t function normally without him, and that should make me want it more. It did.
