When I opened my eyes, I was inside my room in the castle.
It felt as if a train ran over me. I grunted and croaked and tried to push myself up.
“Bear,” Dad said from next to me. “Easy, easy.” He touched my arm softly and my head, arms and body felt so heavy.
“What happened?”
“Something I always thought they had control over. But The Rubicon showed us it wasn’t in their control.”
“What?”
“He released the power of your abilities. It’s like revealing to the rider why they need the dragons to carry it. It only happens with genuine bonds, with Dents. For years everyone thought it was them yielding after the fight, but it’s not.”
“Where is he?”
“Relax. What he showed us really happened?” Dad didn’t look impressed.
I swallowed hard.
“The process started immediately.”
“What process?”
“The Dent. Nobody knows what they are going through as a dragon that is part of a Dent will never reveal it. He is okay. He’s just sleeping, Elena.”
I nodded. “I trained for nothing.”
A chuckle slipped through my father’s lips. “I didn’t even know a Rubicon could yield like that, but he is part Metallic.”
“They are going to allow it?”
“He is going through the Dent process as we speak and everything happened the same way it would’ve if he yielded any other way. You got the heaviness of your abilities.”
“So that was normal?”
“Yes, Bear, it was very normal.” My dad smiled. “You have your beasty.”
“Did you know who he was?”
“The Rubicon?” My dad asked.
I nodded.
“I did. I begged him not to show you, as you didn’t handle it too well when I showed you. We already messed up your foundation to your bond so much. I didn’t want to mess it up any further, Bear. It’s the most important part of a bond, that love. He told me not to tell you he will fix it. We have no choice but to obey the alpha’s call.”
“Love?”
“In normal relationships, it’s trust and respect. In dragon-human bonds, it’s different. Love is the most important, then trust and respect and the rest.”
I got what he was saying.
“Let me guess, the idiot didn’t tell you.”
I laughed and shook my head. “How did you manage for everyone not to tell me?”
“By asking nicely. I told Micha that was Blake’s wish. She didn’t understand it one bit, but she promised to keep it.”
We both laugh.
“You met your father?”
I nodded and remembered what he said.
“How was it?”
Wait for Blake. I stopped. “Wonderful. It felt so real.”
“Yeah, that makes it so special.”
“So he was really there?”
Dad nodded. “He was. He felt it just like you, Bear.” He bent over and kissed me on top of my head. “I’m glad that you are okay?”
“Me too. I just don’t want the abilities again.”
Dad chuckled. “You won’t. The dragons are the carriers. That is why the Dragonians have them. They are not your pets, Elena, and you are not our possessions, you hear?”
It was the same thing my father told me. I nodded.
He winked, got up, and walked to my door. He stopped as he opened it and turned around. “Rest. I’ll ask someone to bring you something to eat.”
“Thanks.”
My father closed my door. My eyelids fluttered. They felt so heavy, and just like that, I drifted away.
* * *
I got stronger. Ben came every day to check up on me.
In less than two days, I was up and walking around. I didn’t feel any different, to be honest, even though I had a dragon.
Blake was still sleeping inside the arena. He hadn’t transformed back to his human form and guards kept a watch over his sleeping body.
Lucian told me it was the most vulnerable time in a dragon’s life during the Denting process, and Paegeia always guarded them in a safe place, especially if that dragon was the Alpha.
Everyone was obviously still in shock that he just yielded. Lucian didn’t know he could do that. Just like my father had told me.
“He’s part Metallic,” I said.
“His Chromatic part is stronger, Elena.”
“Well, he yielded without a fight.”
“He made the choice because you were not ready.” He made it sound as if it was my fault.
“I didn’t ask him to yield!”
“You didn’t have to. You could’ve told your father that you were not ready.”
“It’s not my fault. I was going to fight. I was prepared to fight. He didn’t.”
“I just don’t know what this will do to his reputation. He is the alpha of all the dragons. They might see him as weak.”
“Guys and their reputation. Seriously. There is nothing wrong with submitting. It’s twenty times harder than fighting.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s how dragons will look at it.”
“Well then, they are stupid.” I wished he could leave. He was really pissing me off.
“You really didn’t know he was the Rubicon?”
I glared at him.
Lucian laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing. It was just hilarious when he told me you asked him if he ever faced the Rubicon.”
“Shut up.” I punched him as hard as I could in the arm.
“Ow.” He chuckled and rubbed it.
“Let that be a lesson to not make fun of me.”
“Yeah, about that kiss, you really can’t tell him, Elena.”
“I said I won’t,” I whispered.
Lucian sighed. “Blake hated my guts at a stage. He knew I was going to fall for you eventually, and he knew the day it happened. He almost ripped my head off.”
“What?”
“Yeah, dragons are very possessive, which brings me to the snow dragon.”
The girl with the white hair. “Who is she?”
“Not his dragon.”
“Piss off.”
He grinned. “I’m joking. He had something with her before you. She took the break-up hard.”
I nodded.
“Don’t nod, Elena. Hear what I’m telling you. She will do whatever is in her power to cause a rift between you. Do not give her a chance, please. She is extremely intelligent and just as cunning. I told him he shouldn’t even be friends with her, but he feels he owes her something for sticking out with him that long.”
“She’s really beautiful.”
“She is not you. She will never be you, either. What you are to Blake, don’t give her the chance.”
“Okay, fine. I won’t. Now get off my back before I am going to put my beasty on you.”
Lucian just stared at me. “He is not a beasty.”
“Whatever. He is an idiot for not telling me the truth. He had all the chances in the world and he let me sound like a nut instead.”
“He was afraid that you would hate him more. He is very iffy about the bond. I’m so glad this shit is over.”
I chuckled at Lucian.
“It’s not funny. You do not share a room with him at Dragonia.”
I laughed harder. I could only imagine the threats he had to endure the past few months.
“You want to see him?”
“He is asleep and the guards are always around.”
“It’s your beasty, Elena. You can see him whenever you want. Just don’t tell him I called him a beasty, please. I fear he is going to shower everyone with his pink kiss that calls him a beasty.”
“Well, it’s mine, so I’m safe.”
“Everyone apart from you. He doesn’t hate it when you call him that.”
My core burned up with warm goo. He was my beasty. I walked with Lucian to the arena.
He greeted all the guards, and the door opened.
“That was easy.”
“They know us.”
I saw the Rubicon lying on top of a gigantic nest.
His body was enormous as he breathed deeply in and out. A soft snort came with every breath he took.
Blinds covered the windows, casting darkness. We walked closer and his tendrils laid flat around him, like they were protecting him.
I haunched down on the ground and grabbed one tendril. It didn’t feel the same it felt in the simulator. They had a silicon substance, with smooth skin.
His breathing was rough and loud. “Is he okay?” I asked Lucian without taking my eyes off my beasty. He would never lose that name.
“He is fine. Just a big lump of scales and limps that refuses to stop growing.”
His claws on his paws were sharp.
He really was beautiful. I loved him more for yielding when I was barely hanging on. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t visit either. The Ancients withheld him from me. Scared that he would kill me. So stupid. If he wanted that, he would’ve done it in the beginning. He wouldn’t have come for me when Fox took me.
He wanted this, and another spurt of warmth released into my chest. I was happy, finally.
I visited Blake every day, just staring at him, touching his scales. He was really beautiful.
I found a patch on his back where the scales were tiny and not as hard or as big as the other scales. An icy fingered rushed down my spine as my eyes flickered to my bracelet.
“You didn’t.” I closed my eyes. Did he took the skin off him to make the bracelet on my wrist? Was he insane?
I wanted to scold him so badly, but he was sleeping. So I grunted furiously and stormed out of the arena. I tracked Dad down and he told me the truth.
“Bear, relax. It grows back, and believe me, he got an earful when everyone came to realize where he had gotten the leather from.”
“I get why everyone calls him an idiot.”
Dad chuckled. “Well, he is your idiot now.”
“Not funny.” I was still fuming.
“Yeah, about that. I know boys, even if they are dragons. I gave him the talk already before your claiming, but you need to be careful, Elena.”
“Dad, no!” I covered my ears. “I really do not need to have this talk with you.”
“Elena, I’m just saying,” he yelled as I walked out of the lounge area where Dad was reading a book.
“Don’t worry about that, please.” My cheeks reddened as I ran away, back to my room.
I took the bracelet off. I’m literally wearing his skin. Such an idiot.
Dad got an extension for the interview. I wasn’t ready, and the guy said on one condition. He wanted to have an interview with both of us.
Dad told him it was a done deal. I felt better now that I knew I wouldn’t be alone on that stage.
I didn’t know how Blake felt about interviews. He didn’t like the paparazzi that much as the tabloids always put him in such a negative light.
I finally looked through all the articles they wrote about him. The girl with the white hair Tabitha, was always with him.
I would give him that choice when he woke up. It was fair. Maybe he wanted to be with this girl and felt that he had to make it work with me because of who I was.
I couldn’t wait for him to wake up. It felt as if he would never wake up.
The mural kept me busy, though. I was in heaven, being able to outline a beautiful war picture. Queen Maggie came regularly with snacks and just stared in awe at the outline that was busy forming.
“Elena, you are so talented.”
My cheeks reddened every time she praised me. “Was my mom or dad an artist?”
“Well, Albert had a great artistic hand, but he wasn’t a natural. It was your grandfather from your mother’s side. He could make the most beautiful things from whatever he got his hands on.”
“My grandfather?”
“He died way too young, had pneumonia. The Swallow Annex dragons were only used to heal royalty, nobility and the rich. Not everyone was privilege enough to feel a dragon’s healing touch.”
“That sounds so wrong.”
“One thing that your parents changed. How was it to see him?”
The secret was burning in my throat, but I kept my promise. Dad couldn’t lose his dragon. “Amazing and magical. It was so real. I get why everyone loved them. A few minutes with my dad, and I lost my heart.”
The queen laughed. “They both had that ability to make people fall head over heels for them. I missed them so much.”
“I can imagine.”
The chat ended, and she left as I carried on with the scene in front of me. I kept a tiny part for my dad and Robert on here too. I couldn’t believe he was a dragon too.
Blake’s family came the next week. His mom was the doctor at the school and hugged me. “Oh, you are so beautiful?” She spoke as if she had never seen me before.
I squinted at her.
“My name is Isabel,” she said in a British accent. “I never thought he could yield like that. I’m so proud, meaning that he has more good in him than bad. Thank you, Elena.”
“You are welcome.” I squinted at her.
“Hey, you.” Sammy pushed past her mother and flung her arms around my shoulder. “Is my brother still asleep?”
“Yeah.”
“Still in his dragon form?” She pulled her face.
“Yep.”
“Ewe,” she said, and I frowned at her.
“Don’t look at me like that. His dragon form will give anyone nightmares.”
His mother and father laughed.
“He is beautiful,” his mother spoke.
“I second that,” I said, and Robert smiled.
The secret popped into my mind again and was burning to be released as Robert gave me a hug. I hated keeping the secret that my father was alive, but telling him now, while Blake was still sleeping, he would die. I promised my dad I would not let that happen.
“Oh, and my mother is not crazy. She hasn’t seen you before,” Sammy said. “Her twin, aunt Constance, is the one you met at Dragonia.”
“Twin?” My eyes skidded from Sammy to her mom as Robert let me go.
Her mother laughed. “Yes, she is the doctor in our family and spends all her time at Dragonia.”
“That makes sense now, thanks.” I smiled.
I took his mother to the arena. She just stared at him with a smile. “I’m so proud of him.”
“I wish he could’ve told me what he planned.”
She chuckled. “That is Blake for you. He surprises you in the worst ways that make you question everything.”
“Did you know he took skin off him to make my bracelet?”
“Yeah, a bit of an idiot, too. I’m afraid he got that from his dad.”
I chuckled.
“Now he is crazy. He once took an entire layer of skin off his hide to make your father’s black cloak.”
“Black cloak?”
“Yeah, it took months for the skin to heal. Learned the hard way never to do that again.”
“My dad wore it when I ascended.”
Her face melted as tears welled up in her eyes. “They were so closed. Robert is struggling a lot with Al not telling him about you, not trusting him enough.”
“About that, my father asked him to give him a message.”
Her face lit up as her gray eyes sparkled. There were no dark spots in them. “He did?”
I nodded. “I’m just going to go.” My gaze flickered to Blake’s humongous figure, and I walked back to the castle.
I found him sitting in the kitchen speaking to my dad and King Helmut.
Dad smiled as I entered, and Robert’s gaze flickered to me.
“How is the painting coming, Elena?” King Helmut asked.
“It’s a gigantic wall, still busy with outlining everything.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
“She is really talented. A lot of schools would’ve taken her without a second doubt. I actually considered it at a stage, but I couldn’t leave her vulnerable to Fox.”
I tapped Robert’s arm as Dad kept talking about my talent. “Would you like to go for a walk?”
