Blake didn’t follow, and I did not know how to feel about that. I already regretted that I’d ask him to stop with whatever he was doing.
Maybe it finally sunk in how hard my life was. If he knew Herbert Watkins, he would think twice. My dad made everything unbearable with friends and outsiders.
What he told me in the woods, about my life needing saving, weighed down my thoughts. I never thought about it like that.
My father might be paranoid, but I knew I was his. Still, wondering about that now was going to weigh constantly on my mind, too. What if he had kidnapped me and someone was constantly on his heels, like my birth parents, and that was why we were running?
Stop it, Elena, that is not what Dad is hiding.
I was in time for art, and I struggled to pay attention to the assignment.
Art used to be the one class that made me forget about everything, but Blake fell into the unforgettable section. What was it with this guy?
The last bell rang, and I looked at the canvas in front of me. I hadn’t even finished contouring the picture that was on the board.
Still, I put the canvas in my tote bag and packed up as I walked to the entrance.
There was no sign of Blake as everyone scurried to their afternoon activities.
The cheerleaders were already in their winter uniform, barely covering their asses.
Guys walked around in their football gear, shoes clicking on the floors in the field’s direction.
Suddenly, music played, and four boys sang All of Me from John Legend to one cheerleader. She had short brown hair that whipped up at the ends. Her amber-green eyes glistened as a jock in a basketball uniform stood close by with a bouquet. I hated this week. There was constantly a guy serenading to a girl with the help of four guys. I had to admit, the guy singing this song did it justice, and I wondered just how good Blake was with singing songs.
The cheerleader’s grin could go around her face if it wasn’t for her lips that refused to stretch any wider. Everyone around them had phones out to record her reaction. My gaze landed on Chloë standing against one locker, smiling, with a phone in her hand.
I carried on walking out the doors and almost walked into a bunch of jocks, waiting to see how this one was going to end.
“Sorry,” I mumbled and walked faster.
Dad’s rusted pickup truck with shaved blue paint stood out like a blotch. You couldn’t miss it.
“Bye, Elena,” a group of jocks wearing ice hockey gear roared, and my cheeks flushed. I turned around. The group that stood by the entrance were making their way to the ice rink.
Blake wasn’t among them. He was like a glitter pencil among chalk.
I didn’t wave, just swiped a strand of my blond hair behind my ear and opened the door of the rust bucket.
I put the huge tote bag and backpack on the back of Dad’s truck before I hopped inside.
Dad’s eyes followed the guys making their way to the ice rink.
I shut the door. “Hey.”
He looked at me with a small smile, tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Believe me, it’s nothing. I promise.” I took the seatbelt and buckled myself in.
“One of those bozos like you?”
“You can say that, and to be honest, he is not making it easy at the moment.”
“In what way?”
“In a ‘I really like him’ way?” I breathed out a gush of air. “But he knows I won’t be here in three months. I told him not to waste his time.” I hated how sad my tone sounded.
“I promise, one day you will meet someone and you won’t even remember this guy, okay?”
I doubted that.
He switched on the ignition and reversed out of the parking lot.
I hated this feeling. Why didn’t Blake follow me when I ran away? Tears stung, and I tried my best to pull them back. It didn’t matter how thick the walls were that I’d built around me. Blake was right. I was waiting to be rescued. Rescued from my life, rescued from the tower I built around me.
I just wanted to be normal.
BLAKE
I grinned like an idiot.
Elena really liked me, and I laughed when Herbert told her that one day she would meet someone really nice that would make her forget all about me. Poor girl—she did not know. Neither did Jako Lemuir.
I watched from the woods as he drove Elena back home. He was a dragon alright. I got a great whiff of his scent when Elena opened the door to climb in.
I had to follow. They couldn’t stay that far and kept running on the edge of the woods. I obviously couldn’t keep the pace. Herbert’s truck was faster than my legs, but I got both of their scents now. So I followed that.
She lived far from school and around three in the afternoon, I finally reached their farm house.
Jako had parked the truck in front of a red barn. I tuned in to find out which room was Elena’s.
Herbert was speaking to someone in the room downstairs.
He was in a meeting, nothing High Security at all. He was trying to sell an idea.
Elena was quiet, but I could hear muffled music and something told me she had her earphones on.
It came from one bedroom upstairs. The one whose window faced the woods.
I still couldn’t come near her, and I did not know how to break this fucking bound she’d put on me.
I didn’t think it would work. I mean, I only met her three days ago, and she already had this effect on me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I knew Herbert’s enhanced hearing would pick up someone in the woods, so I declined my father’s call and made my way back home.
When I was a few miles away from the farmhouse, I phoned Dad.
“Blake, where the hell are you?”
“Followed Elena to see where she lived. We need to talk. You will not like it.”
I put the phone down and headed back home.
I walked in the front door around five.
“How far does she live?”
“A few miles out of the city. Herbert is paranoid like crazy.”
“You would be too, Blake, if you have to protect the princess with no backup, while there is a colony of wyverns on your trail.”
“She doesn’t know a thing?” I blurted it out.
My father’s body stiffened as I plopped down in the chair of the dining room.
Dad picked up one of the take away boxes and handed it to me.
I missed Pete’s cooking.
“How do you know this?” Dad put down a glass in front of me and opened the bottle of coke and poured me a glass.
“Discovered it today when I spoke to her more. She opened up a bit, but she has immense walls around her.” I shoved the burger into my mouth.
“You sure she does not know?”
“I mentioned the wall and Tith. She thinks it’s some sort of city in Boston wherever that is.”
“Blake?”
“Relax. I told her I made a joke with the wall. She would’ve known about Paegeia and the wall if Herbert had told her.”
My father stared at the table in thought and nodded.
“Why didn’t he tell her, Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
“Which means she knows nothing about what she has to do. She doesn’t know that dragons exist, and that she has to tame me one day. I doubt she can even fight.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She looks like she is going to break any minute.”
“Okay, just do what you have to do to get closer. I’ll think of something.”
“About that, there might be a problem.” I looked up at my father.
“What did you do?” My father sighed.
“Nothing, it’s what she did. She sort of ordered me to leave her alone and…” I brushed my hands through my hair.
“No, Blake, that is not possible.”
“I couldn’t follow. I tried. It felt as if an invisible force held me in place and locked my jaw. If that is not a true order, then I don’t want to know what one feels like.”
My father said nothing. Which only meant that it was a true order, and whatever we were going to become was going to be something that nobody in Paegeia had ever witnessed.
“You need to break it.”
“Yeah, no shit. The only problem is my mind is blank on any ideas. How the hell is she going to take it back without me telling her? She already thinks I’m weird.”
“In what way?”
“Dad, I had to act weird today to find out what she knows.”
“Blake.” My father closed his eyes. “This is your rider. Don’t make her pull away from you. I don’t care if it’s for my benefit or for any of the royals. The bond comes first—always. Remember that. She comes first. Don’t break the bond for anyone else. Herbert knows this, too. He might not like it, but he will step aside when the time comes. She is our fucking responsibility, not his.”
I didn’t like the look on my father’s face when he said it.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that Albert was supposed to trust me with Elena, told me she existed. I would’ve raised her as my own, with you, to train her for when she needed to claim you. You both have a duty and Herbert does not know how much he fucked that up.”
My dad got up and walked up and went to his office. He was dealing lately with many emotions revolving around Elena’s father. Why didn’t his rider trust him with Elena, not telling anyone that there was hope not to lose the alpha this time? What was the original plan in all of this, and why didn’t anyone fucking stick to it?
I sighed, thinking about this bloody order to leave her alone. I wished Isaac was here. He would whip up a song in no time. My lips tugged as the valentine serenaders popped into my head. Jace said they made a ton of money doing this yearly, serenading the girls on guys’ behalf.
Isaac wasn’t here, but there were others in that school just like him, and I do not need a bloody new song. There must be one this side that could be just what I needed.
“Dad?” I yelled and got up.
He walked out of the room he claimed as his office and looked at me.
“This order, it’s just me that can’t go near her, right? She can get close to me.”
“Yeah, it’s usually what breaks it. Why?”
“Nothing.” My lips twitched, and I rushed past him, up the stairs, and into my room.
I had some song searching to do.
