I went back inside when Elena discovered her parents were dead. She didn’t know what she even was, what I was.
When Herbert told me to not show her yet, he pissed me off. But not as much as Dad when he revealed we would get her back to Paegeia in our human forms. I lost it.
Seeing how she sat on the opposite side, away from me, clarified that I caused her pain too. I betrayed her, even though I didn’t. I tried to tell her in my own messed up way.
This was going to cause a huge rift in a bond that wasn’t even made yet. She would never forgive me.
I stared at Herbert.
“I’m sorry, Blake.”
“Sorry! You know what she is to me, and all you can say is you are fucking sorry. It won’t surprise me if she wants nothing to do with me after this.”
“Just let her process.”
“Oh, like you had when you told her.”
“She couldn’t handle it. The mere fact terrified her for weeks. I terrified the living crap out of her. It’s not the same. I was her only parent.”
“And now you don’t even want me to tell her what I am.”
“Fine, show her then. Go. Let her look at you the way she looked at me. With fear, with disgust. Yeah, she inherited Albert’s look when he didn’t approve of things. You won’t handle it either. That will cause her to hate you and not want anything to do with you.”
“Blake,” Dad said. “Remember what I told you. If you feel it’s best to tell her, then tell her. Don’t play with this.”
“Play with it? It’s already fucked up because of you two.”
They both fell silent as Helmut eyebrows furrowed.
“I want to go back to Paegeia soon—with her.” I pointed to the room where she was crying her heart out. It broke mine knowing that I caused some of it.
Herbert nodded. “We need more than just the two of you.”
“I’ll get in touch with Helmut. We need to tell her the truth before we go back. She needs to know what she has to do, Herbert.”
“She needs to train first, Robert. Blake can hold on a little longer.”
“Easy for you to say,” Dad said. “You do not know how he struggled, how all of us struggled, knowing there wasn’t any hope.”
“It wasn’t our intention. I tried.”
“Why didn’t you call Matt? Let him know.”
“Because of Fox. He has people close to Matt. I don’t know how close they work with him.”
“I’ll get in contact with him,” I said.
“He doesn’t know you are here?” Herbert looked at me with knitted eyebrows.
“No, because we’ve been trying to track you down,” Dad answered.
“Fox is ruthless, Bob. He kills in the worst way there is.”
Herbert had aged, which told me that he had kept his dragon form hidden for a long time. It must be years.
“You think he works with Goran?” Dad asked.
Herbert’s eyebrows knitted.
“Please tell me you know?” I asked.
“It was Goran. No, he loved Kate and how Tanya reacted told me they burned Kate alive.”
“Not his doing, the wyverns,” Dad answered
“Fuck.” He pulled his hands through his hair. “Goran!”
“Tanya didn’t tell you?”
He shook his head. “We don’t speak more than we need to. She didn’t utter a word.”
“The creepers consumed him and the entire Etan,” Dad said. “We don’t know what is going to happen, but it’s Blake and Elena’s prophecy to free them.”
“Creepers?”
Dad told Herbert everything. The hours ticked by as I kept listening to Elena. Her cries stopped, and I walked up the stairs.
I opened her door after the sun had set and found her room dark. My eyes adjusted, and she laid on the bed, sleeping.
I haunched in front of her bed as tears pooled in my eyes.
A strand of hair fell over her eyes and pooled on the bed. I placed it out of her face. “Sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll fix this.”
My lips brushed against her temple. I got up, took a blanket and draped it over her. I couldn’t stay here. My duty now was to find Matt. We could call home for backup.
I went back down. My soul yearned for home. I had enough of this place.
Dad finished with his story as I reached him.
“I don’t think I should be here.”
“Blake?” my father said.
“She needs to know everything, Dad. What she has to do when she gets back to Paegeia. Do what Herbert says. He knows her the best. Just make her used to the idea of the Rubicon.”
“Blake, if she knows you are—”
“Then don’t tell her yet. When we are home, I’ll fix it. I’ll find Matt and get word to Helmut. They need to come.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think it’s better for the bond at this moment. It has taken a lot of strain.”
“What are you talking about, boy?” Herbert asked. “She hasn’t even claimed you yet.”
“Don’t,” Robert said. “You do not know what the two of us caused them tonight. Elena already had a lot of power over Blake. Whenever she orders him, it’s set.”
Herbert looked at me. “In the parking lot, when she told you to go.”
“Believe me, I didn’t want to,” I replied.
He wiped his forehead hard. “Fuck, what does this mean?”
“It means we could’ve broken it. The most important part of the bond is the foundation. We fractured theirs.” Dad looked at him.
“Fracture is sugar coating it, Dad. How the fuck did she get my bracelet?” I asked.
“Your bracelet?”
I pulled off my bracelet and slid it across the table to him as I pulled out the chair and plopped down on it.
Herbert jumped from the chair, staring at it. His gaze flickered to mine, and his eyes squinted. “It’s you?”
“What is me?”
“Herbert, what are you talking about?”
“Fuck?” Herbert pulled his hands through his hair as he frowned, staring at the bracelet.
“What is me?” I asked again.
He shook his head. “The ones that vowed to protect us all perished two years ago. An unknown force kept warning me whenever danger was near.”
Dad and I looked at each other, eyebrows knitted. I looked back at Herbert. “What do you mean?”
“It happened twice. The moon-bolt sees everything, and she risks her life by letting me know as she reveals herself to Fox where she is every single time she gets in contact with me. Her family flees as much as we do. The times she didn’t, my appliances warned me.”
“Your what?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know how else to say this. Something is interfering with the TV and the actor will tell me to go, that they are coming. If Elena has this, and it belongs to you, it means that she didn’t have an imaginary friend when she was little, Blake. She saw you. You gave her your bracelet.”
“If I gave her….”
“You are going to?”
I squinted.
“It’s you that keeps warning me. You are keeping her safe too, you just don’t know it yet.”
“How?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it has something to do with why genuine bonds are so vague about what sets the bond.”
“The Dent?” I asked.
“It has to be. Think about it. Chromatics hate their riders with a passion, and after the dent, they love them like they were their everything. Their soul mates. Like they know everything?” Herbert said. “What if they do?”
“Meaning?” Dad asked.
“The bonds these dragons share with their riders are not normal, but it’s special and magical. What if they witness everything?”
“It’s a witness, Herbert, not real?” Dad replied.
Herbert’s gaze flickered to mine. “He’s the Rubicon. The strongest of us all. He can make it real.”
I got what he said. Goosebumps crawled up my arms, raising the hair on my neck.
“She was around two. It was so weird. It terrified me that Elena saw things she shouldn’t be seeing. She always babbled when there was no one in the room and when we entered, she would fall silent.
“It was like she was guarding a secret. One day, I found her with that bracelet. No matter how much I begged to tell me where she had gotten it, she didn’t tell me. She just giggled, like it was some sort of game.
“I ordered Tanya to sort it out. To know if it was a threat. And she came back, had a knowing smile on her face but refused to tell me. She just said that Elena is not alone. Someone we couldn’t see is protecting her.”
He lifted his gaze. “It’s you. Whatever the dent process is, it’s real. We need to take it to our grave. Nobody can know about this, Bob.”
My dad nodded as he stared in awe at the bracelet.
“Okay,” I said. “How do I get hold of Matt?”
“You need to fly to get to him,” Dad answered.
“Fox will find him,” Herbert answered.
“Good, we’ll see how far he is going to get,” I replied.
“Blake?”
“I’m the fucking Rubicon. They won’t last.”
“His alpha call is strong. Believe me, he can make them rip themselves apart with it, if he wants.”
Herbert’s gaze flickered at me, and I could swear I saw a flicker of fear dancing inside his irises.
“Which is why I had to leave. I don’t want Elena to hate me more.”
Herbert’s eyes flickered to the bracelet again just before I snatched it and put it on my wrist again. “I’m sorry, Blake. Really, I am.”
“Just tell me how to find Matt. I’ll tell Helmut everything.”
Dad nodded.
The next hour, he explained to me where the organization that kept a register of all dragons was situated. It was going to be a long flight. When I get there, Matt would get in contact with Helmut. I had to tell him everything. Helmut was waiting on news, why this mission was so important.
“I promise you, Son. I’ll do whatever is in my ability to keep her safe.”
I nodded. I trusted him. He would die for Elena. She was his rider’s daughter.
I said goodbye and begged my dad to make the blow of the truth gentle.
“You know I will. I’m sorry about today.”
“It’s okay. I’ll fix it.”
I left and walked into the forest. With shaking hands, I pulled off my clothes and morphed into the Rubicon. It felt great when all my scales shifted into place and then I darted through the trees and got as high as I could, as fast as I could. She was going home, and we needed all the manpower to get her there.
