I took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of hay. A hunger I’d never experienced before filled my gut the same time as my eyes fluttered open.
Blurry images of shadows on walls became clear with each wink.
Everything looked small and my tendril hanging over my paw was the first thing that jumped at me.
I was still in my dragon form.
Images poured in what happened before the witnessing process started.
Jako was right. He nailed the Dent process when he said it was a witnessing process and I helped them. How? I didn’t know?
I shifted back into my human form and found the leather wrap. I twirled it over my hips and covered my lower body.
My head spun as I needed food badly.
I pushed the door open with momentum. My body almost fell into it, and two of Helmut’s guards jumped as they saw me.
“Blake.” Simon smiled.
I saluted weakly and headed for the castle. What the hell was I doing at the castle in Tith?
I turned around and saw it was the training arena they’d kept me in. How did I get here?
The last thing I remember was… Elena. She growled in pain and her piercing scream vibrated against the walls of my mind.
I walked faster, but was so off balance. I needed to know if she was okay.
Most of the castle lights were off. It was only the spotlights and one or two windows on the ground floor that shown some sort of light.
I crashed through the entrance and lost my balance. The spinning in my head put me on edge.
“Blake,” Dad’s voice spoke and footsteps rushed toward me.
“Elena.”
Strong arms picked me up, and Dad’s strong fragrance burned my nose. “She is fine.”
Emanual’s smokey, burned smell enhanced his human scent, tickled my nostrils and caused my stomach to turn.
“Thank heavens there is a feast waiting in the fridge,” Dad said and helped me to the nearest seat inside the kitchen.
He pushed me into it, and I rested my head on the palm of my hand. “Something is wrong?”
“You’d been asleep for almost two weeks. When you released your abilities, you didn’t change back into your human form and no medical procedures could’ve taken place. You are weak because there was no feeding tube to sustain you.”
Emanual made a ruckus inside the fridge and plopped food on a plate, before putting it in the microwave.
“Almost two weeks?” I asked.
“You can be glad that you didn’t go into hibernation,” Emanual answered standing in front of a microwave.
The sound of the microwave pinged. A steamy hot plate of food covered the plate, and I dug in. A tall glass filled with water and ice found its way in front of me, too.
I drank up the entire glass in less than ten seconds.
Dad refilled it as I kept hoovering the potatoes, roast beef mixed with rice, pumpkin with other vegetables down my throat.
The white of the plate showed and in less than five minutes, the plate was empty.
Emanual took the empty plate away and put down a second plate in front of me.
I took my time eating this one, tasting the food, which exploded on my tastebuds.
Two weeks.
The third plate came with a bottle of beer, and Emanual took a chair in front of me. “How do you feel?”
“Better.” The spinning in my head calmed down. “How is Elena?”
“Elena is fine, Blake. She woke up two days after the claiming. She has been worrying her ass off about you,” Emanual answered.
“As long as she is fine. What happened?”
“Something we thought Dents always had control over. You released all your abilities on her.”
I gaped. “How can she still be alive?”
“She isn’t the carrier. She felt what that power feels like for a second. The burden to carry it. Helmut thinks it’s teaching her what you are to her. Not just what she is to you. Everything is so mutual with Dents,” Dad said.
“What time is it?”
“Just after two.”
Great. Six hours to go.
“The Dent?”
“Yeah, take it to your grave.”
Dad nodded.
“What about the Dent?” Emanual asked.
“Nothing?” Dad answered, and my lips curved.
“If you know the procedure and what takes place, Bob, and you are not telling me—”
“You think I know the procedure. I was asking if the bond was strong.”
“Then why did Blake tell you to take it to your grave?”
“He’s part of a Dent now. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was going to become paranoid after this.”
“Haha,” I mocked and Dad chuckled.
I nibbled on a fourth plate and discussed what took place the past almost two weeks.
Elena got a postponement of the interview on Kevin’s show that she had to do on one condition. I had to do this with her.
“Whatever, I don’t care.”
I could feel both their eyes on me. They needed to get used to it. A lot of things were going to change.
I still couldn’t shake off the feeling of how real the past almost sixteen years felt. It wasn’t. It was hardly two weeks.
Dad took me to the war room and showed me what she was working on the past two weeks. She was really talented. Half of the wall had an outline of some war scene with dragons and mountains. Dragonians sat on top of their backs. The other side and the top of the wall were still barren.
“She saw him, Blake?”
I looked at my dad. “I figured that much? Did he give her some answers to why all the secrecy around her birth?”
Dad nodded. “He told her I was never on that suspect list. He didn’t tell me because he knew I would abandon you and Sammy to raise her.”
My eyebrows squinted. “Would you?”
He shook his head. “I would’ve come back as soon as they illuminated the threat and raised her with you and Sammy, in her world.”
Imagining us growing up together. It would’ve been so different. She would’ve known me the same way I knew her. “Too bad he didn’t trust you with that.”
“He’s human. Doesn’t matter how old they are, they are still idiots at times.”
I chuckled.
“I wished I could see him just one more time. Hear the words from his lips.”
“Dad, Elena didn’t make that up.” I remembered the beginning. How Albert begged Tanya to tell him and how the queen said that he would abandon us. Albert knew it was the truth. But Dad wouldn’t. It would’ve given him a purpose to carry on serving the Malone bloodline. He didn’t know what he took from Dad.
“You saw it?” Dad whispered, and I nodded.
He sighed. “It explains why he ordered me away from him that night. Why he refused, I stayed by his side. You needed me. It was always about the two of you.”
“I’m sure if he could’ve done things differently, Dad, he would’ve. Like you said, he was only human. They don’t think things through as deep as we do.”
“No, they trusted Tanya.”
That one still made Dad angry. “They didn’t stick to the plan, Dad.”
I couldn’t tell them she sacrificed her daughter so that Elena could live. I was so disgusted with that, but nobody even asked about the little Thunderlight that used to belong to Herbert and Tanya. Still, I was grateful for Cara. She gave Elena life.
“I just don’t get how they got out,” Dad said. “I mean, if it was the coward’s potion, the hold on us would’ve subsided by now.”
It wasn’t the coward’s potion. I didn’t answer him. I would not cause more shit for us. And Cara’s sacrifice could cause a lot of shit. We already lost too much. I would not play more with that one.
We moved back to the kitchen, and the conversation became lighter. Dad told us that Albert wore his cloak, and that Elena wasn’t happy that the leather from her bracelet came from my back.
I didn’t care. I would give her an entire collection of leather outfits from my skin if she wanted it.
The conversation turned to the old days, and Emanual and Dad laughed at the old stories. I never saw my father laughing that hard in years. I missed the joyous side of him. He really had a great laugh.
The staff was the first to show, and we moved to the patio. They brought us fresh coffee.
Helmut joined us next, with Jako in tow. They were all happy to see me and more laughter surrounded us as they told stories about their past. Jako had the most, as he was the oldest. He sort of raised King Albert, had to beat him too, as his rider ordered. Jako couldn’t. He loved him too much.
Then Lucian and queen Maggie joined.
My stomach fluttered every single time I heard footsteps, only to find someone else.
The breakfast got placed like a feast in front of us. I grabbed another plate.
“Blake, how many more?” my father asked.
“I’m hungry,” I replied as the queen laughed.
I started shoving forks of food in my mouth as Dad just stared at me with a cup of coffee in front of him.
My stomach twitched as I heard more footsteps running down the stairs.
It was my sister and mother. Sammy told Mom to go as she needed food.
She walked out onto the patio and started saying hello to everyone. My entire family was here?
She gasped and shrieked as her gaze landed on me sitting next to Dad. She ran over and flung her arms around my neck from behind, kissing me on my cheek.
“Mom and Elena went over to the arena,” Sammy whispered.
I jumped up and everyone laughed as I walked with huge strides to the arena.
They weren’t in sight when I neared. The door opened from the inside and Mom walked out first, with Elena right behind her.
She shrieked as she came running toward me. I opened my arms, and she jumped into them. Her arms clung around me like a monkey, hugging me tight.
“Scare me more, next time, please.”
“I’m okay. I told you, you are stuck with me.”
She giggled at the nape of my neck.
I put her down as Mom came closer and hugged me tight.
She kissed me on my cheek. “I’m so happy that you woke up, Blake.”
“Me too.” I pulled my hand through my hair and smiled at mom as she stared at me. “What?”
“I’m so proud of you. You just yield.”
“Oh, crap.” I mumbled.
Elena laughed. “Yeah, thanks so much for that. I was ready to put up a fight. I trained bloody hard for that one.”
I pulled her closer to me. “I didn’t know that I could do that.” My lips brushed the top of her hair.
“Oh, and one other thing.” She sounded stern. “If you ever skin yourself again to make anything else, Blake Leaf—”
“Samuel,” my mother said.
Elena looked at her. “That is what the S stands for, Samuel?”
“Yep.” Mom’s lips thinned as her eyebrows raised.
“Blake Samuel Leaf. I won’t speak to you for a year.”
I chuckled.
“It’s not a joke. It’s barbaric.”
I looked at her wrist. She didn’t wear the bracelet. “Where is it?”
“Your punishment. I will not wear it.”
“Oh, come on. It’s yours. Just wear it, please?”
“You are an idiot.”
“Told you he got that from his dad. Not me.”
We both laughed. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, I do, but it’s not worth the amount of pain, please.”
“I heal fast.”
“No!” she yelled.
I sighed. “Okay, fine. I promise I won’t do that again.”
“Thank you.”
“If you promise to put it on and never take it off.”
“Okay,” she mumbled. “There are a couple of things we need to talk about too.”
“Okay, you want to eat something first?”
“Yeah, my stomach is growling at me.”
Breakfast was fun. Lucian and I teased Elena about her not knowing I was the Rubicon. Emanual, Helmut, Dad and Jako had their comments too.
“How was I supposed to know?”
“Callibre?” Lucian asked.
“Eat your food,” Elena whined. She finished her tea and then, when she finished, we excused ourselves so we could have this chat.
We walked toward the lake. Elena hooked her arm in with mine.
I laughed.
“Stop laughing. You could’ve told me?”
“When? You were hanging on a thread.”
“I sounded like an idiot asking you if you faced him, meantime you were the beasty.”
“Dragon, Elena. I’m not a beasty.”
“Fine, then beast.” She laughed.
“What is so hard about the word dragon?”
“I don’t know, okay? The word just brings on this suffocating fear in me. So you will stay a beasty until the fear goes away.”
“Fine,” I said. “So what is it you want to talk to me about?”
We reached the lake and sat down on the bench underneath the willow trees. It was so beautiful here.
“One reason I didn’t know you were a dragon had to do with the snow beasty.”
I sighed.
“No, hear me out.”
My gaze fluttered down to her.
“I’m not like everyone on this side.”
“Oh, I know.”
She smiled. “You don’t have to be with me just because you feel you owe me something. I will still be your rider, but I want you to be with the person or beasty of your choice. So if you love her, I’ll step aside.”
I just stared at her. I think I might have fallen more in love with her.
“If you want some time to think about it—”
“Are you insane?” I asked. “She means nothing, Elena. She was just a fling, a scratch whenever there was an itch. I only want one person and she isn’t a beasty at all.” I pulled her closer and wrapped my arms around her. “You are so stuck with me. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Scratch when there was an itch?”
I shrugged.
“About those itches. I really wanted to wait.”
Fuck! “How long?” I asked.
“Until I’m married, hopefully to you.”
I gave her a look, and she laughed. “Are you serious now?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Okay, fine. Then I’ll deal with my scratches in another way that won’t blow up in my face.”
She laughed and hugged me tighter.
“But I need at least second base, Elena.”
“Oh, crap, what is second base?”
“Yeah, way too many ears.”
She laughed again and pulled out of my embrace.
I lowered my head toward her and brushed my lips over hers. Fuck, how the hell am I going to last without sex?
The buzz came the second our lips brushed and Elena kissed me harder.
And when she kisses me like this.
The kiss was greedy, and the tingles rippled all over me. It was the most amazing feeling in this world.
She breathed hard, and we stopped. My lips still buzzed when the kiss broke.
Her eyes were closed. “Something tells me I’m never going to get used to your kisses, am I?”
“Meaning?” I chuckled.
“Meaning that I’m buzzing all over.”
“You feel the buzz too?” I whispered.
Her eyes opened. “You feel it also?”
I nodded. “It’s the best feeling in this world. I hope never.”
I wrapped my arms tighter around her and kissed her on top of her head.
“How is this going to work, Blake?”
“How is what going to work?”
“You only released my fire. What about the others?”
I smiled. “I’ll release them if you are extra good to me.”
She gaped and then laughed. “You are going to play it like that?”
“Hell yeah, I need a lot of leverage, Elena. Besides, not all of them have awakened yet.”
“Which ones are you still waiting for?”
“I have the fire, and the persuasion with the gas. The healing thing is also awake. Then there is the telekinesis and acid.”
“That is it?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid. I’m just one dragon, Elena. Can you imagine if I had all my abilities and released that on you? Holy crap.”
She laughed.
“Okay, so how do you know if you have the others?”
“I can feel the shift in my body. I lose either a sense or become sick. The fever with the fire was the worst and then I lit up.”
Her eyes grew. “What?”
“Yeah, it’s cool afterward. To experiment with it was awesome.”
She just nodded with enormous round eyes. My shoulders bobbed.
“And you want to know why I call you a beasty?”
I chuckled.
She looked at me and bit her lower-lip. Man, I just wanted to kiss her again.
“Do you have a shield?” she whispered.
I looked around. Why did she want me to put up my shield?
“Blake?” she begged.
“Fine.” I released my shield, and she looked at it.
“Micha’s shield is flawless.”
“Oh, shush. You know she was going to slay me, right?”
She smiled. “Yeah, she is very relieved that she doesn’t have to anymore. We share the same fascination.”
“Oh, so now I’m fascinating to you.”
“You are the alpha of all the beasties, Blake.”
I grinned and shook my head.
“Is it safe?”
“Yes, no one can hear through it.”
“Okay, there is something I need to tell you.”
“What?”
“My dad begged me to wait for you before I tell anyone?”
“Jako?”
“No, my real dad.”
She ascended. “You saw him?”
She nodded.
“Okay, I’m here now.”
She hugged her knees.
“Elena, what is it?”
Her gaze flickered to mine. “It’s my dad, Blake. He is still alive.”
