Friday was a mess. I got bombarded with questions from Vivian about how I knew Blake.
I was vague with all of them. Told her he was a good friend, and that was that.
I ate breakfast in silence, as I was one of the first ones here.
“Early bird,” Chef asked.
“More like an early grouch. Last day of training. After tomorrow, I’m going to sleep for an entire week.”
He chuckled, and I dished up my normal oats with blueberries.
I ate fast and drank my glass of orange juice. Afterward, I took the long walk to the Parthenon dome, hoping that my food would digest faster. When I got to the dome, Micha was still not there, so I warmed up. I need all the time for today’s lesson.
Micha spoke about the Rubicon’s weak points today and I paid attention. He had more than just his tendrils. There was a spot on his stomach too, which she’d show me tonight inside the simulator. Something told me that there was no time for a party.
We trained a bit, and then she walked with me back to the academy.
“Remember, Elena. Underneath that big lump of muscle and scales is only a boy.”
I nodded and went to my room and took a shower to get the sweat off me. I never had so many showers in my entire life.
Micha’s word about only a boy replayed in my head. He was just a kid. I knew it. Then how could he break Lucian and Arianna? That made little sense.
At ten, my name got called over the system and I left.
My outfit for the claiming waited with Micha, and she came with me to my room to fit it.
The leather pants hugged my body, and the boots came up to my calves. I had a mean vest; it was rock solid and from the newest range. It was so light. The black long sleeve shirt underneath kept my body cool.
One more day, then I would be sixteen and could claim the insecure little boy behind that lump of a beast.
After lunch, I went to my room to pack. Everyone who shared the room with me had suitcases in front of their beds. But none of them were here. Many voices rang out in the corridor. They were telling each other goodbye. They formed a lot of friendships during the week. I only know Sammy, Blake, and Lucian.
Master Longwei’s voice blared from the system, calling all the first years to the Orientation. I grabbed my bag as footsteps skidded in all directions. The three pushed through the door as I hauled the strap over my shoulder and out the room, wearing a pair of shorts and a Summer top, with flops. It was hot here.
I passed Blake’s dragon, and she laughed. She was perfect. She would probably kill me if she knew I was in his room. I kept my head down as I walked past them.
“You are Elena, right?” her voice came from behind me.
I stopped and looked at her. My stomach tied into knots and my heartbeat thumbed. “Yes.”
Her lips curved on the one side into a lopsided smile. “Good luck with tomorrow. You are going to need all the help with that dragon.”
“Thanks.”
“We can’t lose him, but piece of advice, be careful of the boy inside. He doesn’t always know what he wants or what is good for him.” It sounded like a warning.
She knew the Rubicon. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”
She smiled and walked on.
After Orientation Master Longwei took me to his office, where Lucian waited. There was no sign of Blake.
I did not know what we were doing here.
“You ready?” Lucian asked as he gave his suitcases to Master Longwei and took mine from my shoulder, handing it to him, too.
“Ready for what?”
“The best rollercoaster ride of your life.”
“Oh crap!” I sighed.
Lucian and Master Longwei chuckled.
“It’s the fastest way to get home, Elena. You’ll love it.”
Master Longwei stepped to the wall and pulled away curtains that revealed an elevator door.
Micha’s words of that night, that I wasn’t ready for an elevator ride, jumped into my head. Something told me this wasn’t a normal elevator ride.
He pushed a few buttons on a pad against the wall and the two metal doors shifted away from each other, revealing two chairs with safety belts and a mechanical device that raised above the chair. It was a rollercoaster ride. Where were the tracks?
My eyes skidded to Lucian as my heart thumbed.
“Relax, it’s fun.” He walked to the one seat and strapped himself in. I plopped in the seat next to him and tried to figure out the safety belt. Master Longwei came closer and assisted me. He had the clasps clicking inside each other in no time.
I looked up, and it was just black. I couldn’t look down. Where was this ride going? How did it operate?
My gaze landed on Lucian smiling at me. “This is like a rollercoaster ride?”
“If you’re scared, just close your eyes and remember to take a deep breath when everything stops. It helps.”
“Stops, where?” I asked. Nothing that escaped his lips made sense.
“Relax, Elena. Just enjoy the ride.” He gave me one of his knee weakening smiles and leaned back into his chair.
My fingers dented deep into the armrests as the mechanical arm lowered over us and pressed us tighter into the chair.
“Enjoy,” Master Longwei said with a smile, and the doors closed. I couldn’t see anything.
A nervous laugh escaped my lips as the chairs simply stayed in one place, toying with my nerves. I tried to calm myself and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly through my nose.
The drop came, sending my stomach flying into my throat.
My ponytail blew in every direction and my lips and face felt like they were flapping like those animations in cartoons. The speed excelled, and a scream left my lips. I clutched the armrests harder.
Lucian whooped as the elevator kept descending. He absolutely loved it.
Then, as if we had just hit the bottom of the world, it stopped.
“Deep breath, Elena,” he said, excited, and I didn’t think twice.
I thought I was going to die as pain rolled through my entire body. I yelled and released the breath, which made the pain ten times worse. It felt as if someone had marked me with an iron stake all over my body. I tried to muffle my screams and ground hard on my teeth. Then it just disappeared. Everything just stopped.
I breathed fast, clutching my head in my hands. My heart pounded, and the ringing in my ears made it difficult to hear Lucian next to me.
The elevator door opened, and the light blinded me. Queen Maggie’s voice was right in front of me. How the hell? This wasn’t normal!
I opened my eyes, and she pushed a brown bag in front of me. I hurled into the bag and Lucian chuckled.
“Lucian, it’s not funny?” the queen scolded.
The nausea finally quietened down.
Lucian was already out his seat, and my father looked worried at me. “You okay, Bear?”
“I’ll live.” My gaze flickered to Lucian standing at the desk, eating a packet of pretzels. “How can you enjoy that?”
“You should’ve held your breath.”
“This is crazy.”
“It gets easier with time, Elena. I’ve done it a million times and hardly feel anything anymore.”
“This can’t be good for your body.” I looked at the queen as she unbuckled the straps.
“There is nothing wrong with mine. Every organ is perfectly in place if that is what you are worrying about,” Lucian replied.
My legs wobbled as Queen Maggie helped me out of the chair.
That was a ride straight from hell.
Later that day, Micha showed me the soft spots that she was talking about inside the simulator.
He was so big that we walked underneath his body.
Lucian had paused the game so that we could assess him. She tapped on the spot on the silver flesh underneath him. That was one, but he was very protective of it. Everyone that tried to go for it, got trampled to death by his huge paws. Lucian barely made it out underneath him.
“This ankle,” Micha kicked the back left ankle, “Takes a lot of strain. He is a lefty and from what I gathered, this paw carries most of his weight. So he will protect it, Elena, as he knows this.”
I nodded.
He only had three weak spots, that was it.
“He has a fourth weakness but it won’t help you that much.”
“Oh my word, what is it!”
She laughed as Mia told me the same thing.
“Easy, you.”
I froze and laughed. “Me.”
“Yes. Or you will be.”
My cheeks reddened as I got what Mia meant that it wouldn’t help me inside the ring.
I still feared him crushing me or pulling my limbs apart, releasing none of my abilities. With my abilities, I could distract him, but if he didn’t release them, I had nothing to defend myself.
We also trained one last time with Emanual. He wanted the same from me, to push the swamp or whatever my beasty was going to throw at me in that ring, back to the ring.
I did it partially, but just enough for me to see which boulder or tree was Emanual so that he didn’t catch me off guard.
Lucian told me many times that the Rubicon loved the swamp. He was once a boulder that Lucian didn’t see at all, and he saw his ass pretty badly.
Around six, Micha said her goodbyes; she wasn’t staying for tomorrow. She had to get back to my Papi. I wished they were both here.
“Remember everything that I showed you, Elena. Going for his three soft spots, might be hard, but it’s the fastest he is going to release his abilities. And then it will be downhill and you will claim your dragon.”
“Yeah, a dragon wasn’t high on my list for my sixteenth birthday.”
She laughed. “We need him. I know you will do great.”
I hugged her again, and the queen gave her a small gift wrapped in red paper.
“What is this?” Micha asked.
“Something small from Elena.”
Micha’s gaze flickered to me. “Elena?”
“No, you really helped me a lot. I wished I had you for four months, then I won’t have this ball of knots inside my stomach now.”
She stroked my arm. “It’s normal to feel nervous before a claiming. Do whatever is distracting. You are ready, even though it doesn’t feel like that.” Her fingers left my arm and peeled away the lint.
“No, please. I’ll be too embarrassed.” I grabbed her hand.
She smiled. “Okay, whatever it is, thank you. You shouldn’t have, as it was my pleasure to get to know you.”
“One more thing.” I pulled out another thick letter for Papi and she smiled, taking it. “Thank you, Micha.”
“You are so welcome, Princess.”
I growled at her, making everyone laugh.
We watched her walking to the elevator, and she strapped herself in one chair and her bag into the other. How did our bags get here? Probably with the trip afterward. I didn’t stay to watch.
She was by far my favorite and best trainer.
The elevator closed, and she disappeared.
I took a long shower and tried to take her advice to relax. Nothing worked. Her words of me becoming the Rubicon’s weakness stayed in my mind. I remembered that night looking at him and the way he stared up at me. Did he know who I was?
When I got back down, Dad had keys in his hand. “I want to take you somewhere.”
“Okay,” I said and followed him.
He took one car and drove to an oval building with a glass pointy roof. The rest was brick.
Inside was sheik. It was some sort of arena. Thousands of tiered seats surrounded the arena and stopped at VIP glass boxes looking down at whatever took place below. I stared at the million spotlights attached against the wall right before the pointy glass roof started.
Many people were inside, setting up. They were busy with some sort of stage and we watched it moving up and down whenever the electrician commanded it.
Dad and I took a seat in the audience.
He took out a package wrapped with brown paper and string. “Tomorrow you might not even get to see your birthday. Maggie has a cake waiting. I know how much you hate surprises.”
I hugged his arm. We kept watching the staff hanging the flags. The Rubicon’s colors took up most of them, and in contrast with the royal blue, it looked beautiful.
“The Malone colors.”
“What?” I asked Dad.
“The royal blue are the Malone colors.”
My gaze flicked back to the blue flags. There was some sort of golden crest printed on the material. “I’m terrified, Dad.”
“I told you all the big events in our life worth fighting for are terrifying, Elena.”
I shook my head. “What if he pulls me apart?”
“I’ll stop it, Bear. Helmut will stop it. He won’t get that chance, okay.”
I nodded.
“Open your gift.”
“Now,” I asked.
“Yes, I want you to wear it tomorrow.”
I nodded and unwrapped the gift. It was a leather bracelet with a dark purple skin. It almost looked like my other bracelet. Did Blake make this?
I turned it around and lifted the flap. The initials E W M stared back at me. I smiled, shaking my head.
“You know it’s not from me.”
I nodded. I would never escape him. He didn’t break his promise. I was stuck with him, just not the way I wanted to be stuck with him.
“He cares about you a lot, bear. Have faith, okay. Tomorrow is going to be great.”
I nodded.
We sat for a little while longer as Dad pointed at boxes where the royals usually watched the claimings from, but he would be close to the ring tomorrow with Robert, just in case.
We left after my curiosity got settled and we went back home where a cake waited.
All my trainers were there, except Micha, the staff, even Lucian was there. Blake wasn’t. He was never here when I wanted him here.
But I had the bracelet. I would wear it tomorrow.
They sang for me and then I blew out the sixteen candles.
Maggie gotten me so many art equipment and a beautiful leather art tote bag. I didn’t want to know how much it had cost her. She also got a lot of paint for the mural in the War room, as Lucian called it. I couldn’t wait to start with this project. I missed my art.
After the claiming, my life would officially start in Paegeia. I would have an interview next week with one of the biggest talk shows. I was so nervous about that I wanted to puke.
But that was another time’s worry.
Around eleven, I said goodnight, had a bath, and just stared at my bracelet that Blake made.
It carried the Rubicon’s colors, and the silver metal must present the color on his belly.
I couldn’t believe that a bratty boy was hiding underneath that lump of scales. I had the worst luck.
