“No, no, no, no.” It sounded like King Helmut, but I knew it was Goran.
He lifted me by my hair and scowled at me.
“Surprise, motherfucker.” My hands lit up in the pink kiss, and Goran began speaking a spell. The pain felt as if it was going to tear my stomach in two, but Goran’s lips stopped moving.
Sounds came out of me. They didn’t even sound as if they belonged to me.
It felt as if some entity was ready to burst out of me.
Papi was wrong. The spell killed humans.
My foretelling jumped through my head. This was what the viden had meant. This was the place I was going to die.
I looked at Goran and screamed at him. I tried to summon my fire to consume me, to turn him into ashes, but it didn’t want to come.
A growl came out of my lips instead of a human scream.
Goran’s eyes widened as his lips parted. He stared at me as something shot out of my fingertips.
I looked down and saw long, sharp talons.
What the fuck?
My skin changed, and purple scales formed. My limbs stretched as my back arched.
The pain was like I’d never experienced before.
It broke my body in half.
Gasps came from everyone that gathered around us. Goran’s laughter reached my ears. I knew it was him. It sounded like his brother’s, but there was a slightly sharper tone to it. It sounded a bit more sinister than King Helmut’s.
Something told me that this wasn’t Goran’s doing. Who was doing this?
More bones cracked, and I screamed.
It turned into a high-pitched screech as I fell on my palms and feet.
My arms and legs buckled, and I fell on the ground with a thud. The ground vibrated and shook through the trees as the darkness set in.
A face, a beautiful angel face, disappeared like ripples in water and then everything became black.
BLAKE
A scream tore out of me as Elena disappeared through the vortex. How could I forget about Elena?
“Where is Elena?” Lu yelled.
“She let go,” I growled.
“Blake,” he touched my face, “No, no. It was not supposed to be her; it was supposed to be me. Fuck.” He kicked the tree stump.
“We were running out of time, Lu,” Brian yelled. “This fucking tree,” Brian scorched the tree, and fire engulfed around the bark.
Warm arms wrapped around me, and my cousin’s oak smell filled my nostrils. “You’re okay?”
“Where are the Elementals?” Jeff asked.
“With George and Becky,” Lu spoke, defeated.
“Where is Elena?” my sister yelled.
“Sam?” I asked.
She crawled to me and wrapped her arms around my neck the same way Annie had and hugged me tight, then she punched me. “You idiot, why didn’t you tell anyone that you were going dark?”
“He didn’t know, Sam, calm down,” Lu said.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“She is with Goran, Blake. What do you think he is going to do to her, huh?”
Goran. He was going to kill her. I shifted into my dragon form as tiredness seeped through. I’d been pushing now for almost two weeks without sleep. That fucking spell.
My body gave up, and I collapsed on the ground. At least now she had access to my abilities, and I hoped it would not be too late. How could I forget about Elena, my wife? I’d promised her infinity. Nothing made sense anymore.
“Blake,” Lu’s voice vibrated against my eardrums, but I was too tired to open my eyes.
When I woke up, I was in my bed at the palace in Etan.
Elena. I rolled out of bed as my head spun and found a drip in my arm. I landed with a thud on the floor, as the vortex in my head didn’t want to subside.
I remembered everything. Even the spell that King Albert said he’d heard Goran speak.
The king wasn’t imagining it. That spell worked because I submitted, because I chose to be her dragon without yielding. The door opened.
“Blake,” Dad’s voice came, and he helped me up on the bed.
“No, I need to find Elena.” I sounded drowsy.
“You can’t find her like this. You are in no state to fly or do anything.”
“Do you have the Elementals?”
“They are safe.”
I took a deep breath.
“What do you remember, son?”
“Everything.”
“Call Albert now,” Dad spoke to someone waiting at the door. “We will find her. You just get your strength back.”
I shook my head. “He is smart. Strong. I thought he was my rider. My true rider and that you were the ones that did us wrong.” My lower lip quivered. “I almost killed you.” I grabbed him around his neck and sobbed. “I’m sorry about the damage.”
“Shh, it wasn’t you. You were Goran’s puppet.”
“Blake.” King Albert rushed into the room with Jako behind him.
“Help me, please. I need to find Elena.”
The king crouched down next to my father and cupped my head. “Son, you need your rest. Tell me where he is.”
“Twenty miles south of the Acker Woods. He just changes the cloaking spells. You need to speak to all of them if you want to find him.”
Jako got up first and left the room. The king looked at Dad with a set jaw and then nodded, got up, and rushed out the doors.
“Dad.”
“It’s not your fault. He knows that.”
“I didn’t even remember her,” I whispered.
“Now you know how strong Goran is.”
“He is going to kill her.”
“He won’t. I think she might have killed him already.”
“Then where is she?”
“Lost. She doesn’t know her way so well. King Albert has people searching for her. Just don’t lose hope.”
I nodded. “Where is Lucian?”
“His father is still trying to get some answers out of him. He keeps saying it was supposed to be him. Him what?”
“Taking my place. It wasn’t supposed to be Elena. Lucian was fighting the wyvern. Time was running out, and she had no choice.” Tears blurred my sight.
“What was he bloody thinking? How did they even know that a transfer spell would do this?”
“I don’t know, but it worked. Elena spoke the words perfectly, and it was like a blindfold got pulled off. I remembered everything. Even what Goran had spoken to me that day.”
“Albert’s version. Goran spoke to you?”
I nodded. “I could choose. But something happened when I chose.”
“Yeah, we know.”
“It gave his spell leverage, that was all. You need to find her, Dad.”
“We will. Just rest.”
A few days passed. I struggled to get my strength back. It was as if I hadn’t slept for an entire year, and my body refused to vitalize.
On the third day, it felt as if a cloak got pulled off me.
I phoned Lu. I needed their help to find Elena. We needed to talk too about how they discovered where I was going to be.
Lu, George, Brian, Annie, Arianna, and Jeff walked into my room.
Jeff and George smacked me on my arm. Annie hugged me again.
I stared at Arianna; I knew she was advanced for her years with magic and something told me that she had something to do with it.
Lu stood with his hands in his pockets by the door.
“Hey, buck up. We are going to find her,” I said.
“It was supposed to be me.”
“There wasn’t time, Lu. I need your help, the way you helped Elena to find me.”
“My dad is going to wring my neck,” Arianna said.
Annie tried to suppress her laughter.
“You?”
“Scrying, Blake. That is how we found you.”
I squinted. “You did a scrying spell?”
“Yeah…”
“Are you insane? What if Goran found you, Arianna?”
“It’s not the first time I’ve done one, Blake. And I believe what you actually want to say is thank you.”
I took a huge breath and shook my head.
“She is fantastic, bud,” Lu said.
“Thank you,” I said to Arianna.
“You are welcome.”
“I need to go to the Acker Woods.”
“They are not there anymore,” Lu said.
“I know that, but maybe, just maybe, we can find a clue.” I looked at Arianna.
“Why do you look at me like that?”
“We might just need you for something else. Let’s go.”
I climbed onto my sill and pulled off my shirt. The beast came out fast, and I was in the air in no time.
Wind brushed along my scales as I headed toward the Acker Woods.
I was the first to land, and I changed back.
George landed with Lu on his back. He slid off George’s wing. Guess he still hadn’t made peace with Tabitha. He was such a hardhead.
We walked a couple of miles south and ended up by the lake.
There was nothing here now, no sign that there used to be a campsite. Where the hell was he now?
Annie and Arianna reached us.
I looked at the princess of Areeth. “Just speak all the revealing spells, you know.”
Arianna nodded and stepped to the side; she started speaking to all of them one by one.
“This was the place?” Lucian said. “You were in the lake,” he pointed and dropped his head, “We were right here with Arianna. A guy called you.”
I closed my eyes. “No.” I got what they saw and wanted to scream.
His hand touched mine. “She knew it wasn’t you. You felt her, didn’t you?”
I looked at him. “What?”
“You felt her. You walked straight through her and then you stopped and looked around.”
I remembered that day. It felt as if someone was staring at me. That was Elena?
“I sometimes wonder if I would’ve been able to succeed with the spell. Your bond is the strongest. She just wanted you safe.”
“Blake,” Brian yelled, and we all ran to them. Arianna kept speaking the spells.
He pointed at something on the ground. “Is that yours?”
I went on my haunches and picked up her bracelet. It was the one that I gave Elena for her birthday. I’d burned her initials into the flap.
“It’s Elena’s.”
Everyone fell silent.
“Arianna?”
She stared at me with pleading eyes.
“Please.”
“My dad is going to kill me.”
“I need to know if she is alive.”
“Fine.” She sighed, and I sat down in front of her as Lu took the other side of me. She held out her hand for her bracelet. I gave it to her.
“Just keep your mouth shut, please.” I looked at all the others. Goran could not know that we were scrying. Not now.
Arianna cut her hand and a few blood droplets fell on Elena’s bracelet. She grabbed my hand and then Lucian’s as her necklace dangled over the bracelet.
Everything spun, and it went faster and faster. Lucian closed his eyes, but I refused.
The wind blew like crazy as I squinted, and then we were in another part of the woods.
Where were we? Which woods were these?
There was a shit lot of wyverns and an enormous party was busy taking place.
Lu got up first. I followed.
We walked through the wyverns. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve sworn it was the Viking era. They set rows and rows of tens up in front of us. Roasted BBQ filled the air as they got ready for lunch.
I found Goran in front of his tent, sitting on his throne, covered in pelts. He looked in thought, distraught. I wished I could burn him.
Melinda walked toward him and hugged him. She was everyone’s gal as she kissed him on his head. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m thinking,” he said.
Lu and I looked around for Elena.
“She is asking for you, more like begging for you.”
“That was the love of my life’s daughter. I won’t defile her. None of you will lay a hand on her. She is not going anywhere. We will get the Elementals, and we will carry on with what we planned. Nothing has changed. I know the Rubicon is on their side, but he will come back. She hasn’t claimed him yet. My spell will work again.”
“She will become my daughter for now, and she will kill her father. He will know before he dies what it feels like to lose everything the way he took everything from me. Give her a few more days. She won’t break this spell.”
I looked at Lu as we got pulled back to where we’d started, and the spinning took place at once.
Arianna coughed like crazy as I took a hard breath. They gave us water to drink.
“Do you know where that is?” Lu asked.
“I’ve never seen that place before in my life,” I spoke.
“Fuck, fuck!” Lu yelled as he was slamming his fists into the ground.
I struggled to get my bearings straight as my head spun. Arianna’s eyes dropped.
“Okay, princess. It’s time to take you back home,” Brian said and picked her up.
“She is still alive, Blake,” Lu said.
“He won’t kill her. She is alive because of her mother; he’s put a spell on her, Lu.”
“Calm down. We will discover which spell, just like we did with you, and we will save her the way we saved you. He won’t get away with this. I promise.”
