Everything fell silent—the unnatural type of silent too like that day at the gastation. There wasn’t a breeze or a noise. It wasn’t normal for a place as packed as this one.
I opened my eyes and the beast still hovered inches from me, like a house. He stared at me with hooded lids and peacock blues that had vertical slits now for pupils. They didn’t move with me like inside the simulator. Pink and orange flames surrounded us. The flames didn’t flutter like normal flames. They were frozen in time. It was so weird.
What the hell is happening?
The ascension jumped into my mind, and I stepped out of the flame.
Every person in the crowd’s actions turned to stone. The sound, the speakers. Most of the humans stared with wide eyes and round, gaping mouths at us.
Some leaned closer to the person next to them, grasping their jackets or shirts. Others had furrowed eyebrows.
I looked back at the room I emerged from. Lucian wasn’t standing there anymore.
The Rubicon stood frozen, his head still bowed low to the ground, and fire surrounded his head and upper half. An orange glow showed through some parts of his scales. It was beautiful.
Movement caught my eyes on the left, and my gaze flickered to the spot. There was nothing there now. The movement came from a few rows lower and my gaze scanned the crowds a few rows below.
Whatever it was, it moved so fast that I couldn’t see it. The movement came to my right.
My heart stammered as an icy finger ran up my spine. Goosebumps flushed my skin and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I hated this feeling.
The movement entered the ring, and my head snapped toward it. It was a man in a black cloak. He walked closer to me and my feet refused to move.
My stomach turned and pulled in many directions, and my breathing was almost as fast as the pounding of my heart.
The guy took off his hood revealing blond wavy hair.
Familiar green eyes locked on mine and a soft smile spread on his lips. In a second, it became a grin and his entire face lit up.
It was King Albert, my father.
I didn’t know why I ran to him. I mean, I only know about him through what I’d been learning and seeing on the internet.
His arms wrapped around me when I collided with his body.
“Hey, sweet pea.” His breath caressed my ear. He smelled manly, husky, mixed with an oak fragrance and something sweet. His voice sounded so familiar and yet, I only heard it from the television.
I looked up at him through glistening eyes.
“Don’t cry.” He smiled. “So he released his first ability?” His eyes flickered to the Rubicon, and he frowned. “Elena, what happened?”
“Nothing, it hadn’t even started.” I looked back at the massive block of a beast.
“Explain, what did he do?”
“He walked toward me, lowered his head and sniffed, then he released his fire.”
My father’s gaze widened and flickered it back to mine. “He didn’t fight?”
“No.”
“What color were his eyes?”
“Why?”
“Just answer my question.”
I didn’t like the tone in my father’s voice. “Peacock blue.”
“It wasn’t red?”
Red, that was why I dreamt about Blake having red eyes. I shook my head. “What is he doing?”
“He is surrendering.” My father gaped and pulled his hands through his hair. “How well do you know him?”
“He came with his father to the other side and helped us get back to Paegeia.”
“How long ago?”
“Four months.”
“F…. four months?” My father sounded shocked. “Elena, they were supposed to bring you back when the threat was eliminated.”
“Yeah, well, not as easy as you thought it would be. We had rogue dragons on our trail. We almost died. If it wasn’t for Blake and his dad, we wouldn’t even make it back alive.”
“Robert found you?”
I nodded. “I don’t know how, but yeah. He used his son to get closer to me. I still don’t know if he meant all the things he said or if it was only part of the mission.”
“He was nice to you?” My father frowned again.
“Super nice. I fell hard, but I don’t know if his feelings are the same. He is still nice to me.”
My father huffed as a small smile played on his lips. “He yielded long before now. I never imagined the Rubicon could yield like that.”
“Wait, it’s not normal for him?”
“Elena, he is the alpha of the dragons. The most hard-headed and stubborn of them all. I thought he would’ve at least put up a fight.”
I shook my head.
My dad smiled. “He really cares about you to surrender, just like that. It’s not in them, sweet pea.”
“Will they take it as a claim?”
“I don’t know. We never had a Rubicon before him that showed us their other side, their gentle side. He is half Metallic after all. I just don’t know if Paegeia will accept it.”
I sighed. “So there will not be a fight?”
“No.”
I blew out a breath and wanted to grunt. “You want to tell me I trained my ass off for nothing?”
My father laughed. It came from his belly and he kept laughing louder. I joined him. It faltered into a few chuckles and giggles.
“I dreaded today, and that is what he was planning?”
“I doubt he knew he could do that, Elena.”
I didn’t know how I felt about it.
My father rubbed my arm. “I wish your mother could see you. We wanted you so badly, but the time was so wrong. We did not know who was going to betray us, and when it happened, I still refused to believe it.”
“I heard. Goran was your best friend.”
“We lost him somewhere along the line. I do not know who he is anymore.”
“Who he is?” My face slackened.
My father closed his eyes and opened them. He cupped the one side of my face. “I’m not dead. I’m still alive behind the creepers. He is planning something evil and I don’t know what. All I know is that it involves the wyverns. I learned the hard way that they are not like other dragons. Whatever happens, never trust a wyvern.”
My mind was still stuck on the alive part. “You are alive?”
“Elena, you are not ready for this.”
“No, if you are alive, they will fight, Dad.”
“Elena!”
“Don’t Elena me! It’s part of our foretelling. We are the only ones that can free Etan.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “They prophesied it?”
I nodded. “I think I know why now. You are still alive.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“So what! You just said that he is the meanest dragon of them all.” I had no problem calling him that now.
My father stared at me and then pulled me into his arms. “I can’t ask you this.”
“No, it’s going to happen. I’m not losing you. I can’t. And neither will Paegeia. If they really love you like all of them say, they will fight, Dad.”
He kissed me on top of my head. “It will be nice to be free, to meet you, to be a father.”
“I don’t fit in here. I want to but I don’t.”
He touched my face. “It’s your home, you will. I promise you.”
I nodded. I couldn’t believe my father was still alive.
His eyes flickered to the crowd and landed on someone. I turned around and saw Sir Robert staring at Blake and me. My other father was standing next to him.
“Tell him I never doubted him. That it wasn’t like that. I wanted to tell him, but I knew the Rubicon would need him, and telling him about you, he would’ve abandoned his son. We did all of this so that we wouldn’t lose Blake. And that you could have something that will make you feel extraordinary, Elena. You can’t compare a dragon’s love to a human’s love. You deserve that type of love and he deserves a great Dragonian. He is not your pet, you hear?”
I nodded and looked back at Robert. “Robert?” I asked and remembered that time in the kitchen. When he said he was King Albert, my dad stopped him. “He was your dragon, wasn’t he?”
“Still is.” My father squinted. “You didn’t know?”
“Dad, I only discovered a few minutes back, Blake was the Rubicon.”
His eyes made a curious frown, and I laughed. He chuckled too. “How?”
“It’s a long story. I’m hanging on by a thread, but I think I climbed it fast to solid ground. He’s your dragon?” I smiled again and my father nodded as he stared at him.
His smile disappeared as he swallowed hard.
“What is it?”
“You need Blake close to him when you tell him I’m alive, Elena.”
“Why?”
“Because he won’t think. He will fly to those creepers and they will kill him. I can’t lose my dragon too. I already lost your mother. Please, I’m begging you.”
I nodded. “You won’t. I promise.” Tears welled up in my eyes and my dad hugged me again.
“I ticked off the days until your birthday. I lost count during the years, but you were always on my mind.”
“You are going to see me again. I’m tired of listening to stories about you and Mom. I’m tired of people staring at me, too. Just hold on longer, please?”
“I’ll hold on as long as I can.”
I sniffed and let him go.
He touched my face.
I grabbed his hand on my cheek. “You feel so real.”
“Magic. It’s a beautiful thing.” He smiled.
“I want to ask you a question?”
“We still have time.”
“How did you get Dragonia to stay up in the air?”
He didn’t expect that one, but threw his head back and laughed. I laughed with him and he pulled me into his arms again. I didn’t want to say goodbye.
“I promise, I’ll take you through it, and save your theories. I’ll love to hear them.” His lips pressed hard on my head. They were so warm.
I nodded in his chest.
He rubbed my back. “It’s time. Go back into the fire. I’ll stay for a while, maybe he has a hidden agenda.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, everyone keeps saying that.”
King Albert walked with me back to the Rubicon, and I wasn’t ready to let go of my real dad yet. He was still alive. He wasn’t here, not really. I still didn’t know how this was possible to begin with, and I hoped that a part of him was here. That he would remember it too.
I stepped back in the fire, and at once the warmth caressed my skin.
The gasps and twitter returned, and the flames flapped in my ears.
I opened my eyes. Orange and Pink hues surrounded me.
I stared up at the Rubicon.
“Hopefully now you can climb that thread,” he said in a deep, gruff voice. I understood him.
“Seriously. I trained for four months. You couldn’t tell me that this was your plan, or that you were the Rubicon?”
He gurgled, which I assume was his laugh. I hoped it was his laugh and not the beginning of breathing more fire on me.
“There is no threat coming from him.” My father’s voice spoke, but I couldn’t see him. “Be careful with the truth, Sweet Pea. I’ll count off the days till I meet you again.” His goodbye faded.
Something built up inside my core. It was heavy and uncomfortable, like the beginning of a terrible stomach cramp. I grabbed his tendril as the pain rushed up my core and into my limbs.
“No, no, no, no, no.” Blake spoke fast and ordered. “Breathe through it, Elena!”
I couldn’t. It hurt too much to take that breath and the pain erupted my entire body. My piercing scream ripped from my lips and then it felt as if I exploded.
Everything was dark and cold.
