THE SLASHES DIDN’T stop. I didn’t understand any of this as there was absolutely nobody that was here beating me.
Was this a new ability that turned my dreams into a reality?
I would be so screwed.
Becky tried her best, she even used an incantation trying to shield me while Sammy went to get Constance.
A couple of minutes later, the door opened and Constance’s voice filled the room. Julia was at her side and Master Longwei somehow made it too.
“Make it stop, please.” I was beyond deranged and the pain was driving me insane.
She tried. Her hands glowed immediately but more slashes came.
“I can’t make it stop, what is this?” Her eyes were filled with concern as she looked at someone standing behind me. I figured it must be Master Longwei, he knew everything.
“Chong, please!” she yelled again.
“Sammy, phone your father now,” Master Longwei said.
“What, why? My dad is not going to get here in time.”
“Just phone him and tell him to stop beating your brother.”
“What?!” Everyone around me yelled, hell if I wasn’t in so much pain I would’ve shared in their shock.
Another blow. I couldn’t scream anymore. I was so tired.
I heard Sammy speaking to Isabel over the phone. “Tell Dad to stop, Mom. Elena is experiencing it too.” She didn’t give her mother a chance to speak. I didn’t hear her response but we all could hear how she yelled at Robert as Blake’s distant screams still filled the background.
“Stop, you are killing Elena!”
Okay a bit dramatic but it worked. It stopped and the last thing I heard was Sir Robert’s voice. “What do you mean, I’m killing Elena?”
“She is somehow connected to him in ways we…” Master Longwei’s voice trailed off while Constance was busy healing my wounds. Wounds that weren’t even mine, they belonged to Blake.
The last thing I felt was anger, anger at Sir Robert for what he’d just done and the next time I saw him, he would meet a different Elena.
I woke up inside the infirmary. I was seriously getting so tired of this place.
Constance was sitting on a chair right next to my bed reading a magazine.
“I hope this isn’t going to turn into a new trend,” I said and she didn’t smile when our eyes met.
“It was a joke.”
“This is nothing to joke about Elena. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t know how to stop it if it happens again.”
I started to laugh. “Oh, believe me I’m not planning on letting it happen again.”
“Elena.”
“Calm down, I’m not a psycho, but he is my dragon, Constance. And even though he doesn’t want to own up to his responsibilities, I do.”
“The papers are filled with this. It’s not a good thing as nobody can control him anymore without hurting you.”
“Then don’t.”
“Elena, he hasn’t dented yet. He still needs the beatings.”
“It’s going to take a couple of months before it happens again. I’m sure we can come up with something.”
“Any ideas? Because nothing I tried worked.”
“Calm down,” I said again. “So what do the tabloids say, cockroaches?”
“Just that this is something new. The Ancients want to have a meeting, see if they can’t come up with a plan.”
Well at least I will see Pappi again.
I STAYED FOR THREE days inside the infirmary. Sir Robert was there a couple of times, but while I was sleeping, and Julia told me that Constance gave it to him.
She wasn’t going to be the only one that was going to give it to him.
Becky and Sammy were there with Dean and George the day I was released. Yes, it was like some sort of a prison as Constance wouldn’t let me go that easily now that I was a princess.
“Just press this button, Becky. It’s all you have to do.”
“I promise. It’s Elena we are talking about. I’m sure her healing ability will kick in.”
“It won’t, not without his consent,” George said.
That part sucked so much. When Cara was still alive I didn’t need his stupid consent.
“Still, it’s hers.” Becky looked at him with knitted eyebrows.
“It doesn’t work that way, you of all people should know that.”
“Stupid dent,” Becky said.
“Hey, chill babes, we’re dents, and Elena will get there too.”
“Yes, but not without a lot of threatening.”
George smiled at a memory.
“Shut up.” Becky turned around and helped me.
“What was all that about?”
“Nothing for you to know about,” she said and picked up my bag with all my clothes she’d brought the first day I was out.
A knock came at the door and Master Longwei smiled, but one that was filled with concern.
“Seriously, I’ll be fine.”
“Sir Robert said that he didn’t know.”
I huffed and jumped off the bed. “I’ll be fine,” I said again and walked out.
“Elena, we need to speak about this, find a way to block you from it.”
“Oh, I know exactly what to do,” I said when I skidded off the stairs with Sammy and Becky right in front of me.
“You do? Then tell me.”
“Elena,” I heard Sir Robert’s voice. I’d tried to see if Blake was with him, but again there was no sign of the idiot. When was this going to stop?
“I’m so sorr…”
Anger immediately returned. “If you ever lay a hand on him again, so help me. I will make you wish you were never born. I don’t care if you were my father’s dragon or not. I will beat you silly.”
“We will find a way to block the—”
“No! There is not going to be a next time. Do I make myself clear? He is my dragon and it’s my responsibility not yours.”
“Elena, he hasn’t dented yet. He needs it,” Sir Robert said through gritted teeth.
“To what, stay good? Then I will deal with him, not you. If you ever lay a single finger on him in anger again, so help me Robert, you will regret it.” I didn’t care about the ‘sir’ anymore. He didn’t deserve to be called ‘sir’ at the moment.
I was beyond mad.
“You don’t know what you are saying.”
“Don’t push me, I mean it. Blake’s beating days are over and that is final.”
I didn’t wait for his reply and marched into the academy.
My friends were missing and I turned around and saw them with gaped mouths still close to the infirmary. How did I get so fast?
I walked up the stairs. I was beyond livid.
I fell on my bed and flinched as my back still hurt slightly. That was another thing Constance feared. Blake’s scars weren’t going to go away. I guess his needed to heal first before mine would finally disappear.
I couldn’t believe I’d just done that. It felt as if my evil twin was making her appearance again but I didn’t care. I needed her, to be honest, to speak to Sir Robert like that and to make myself clear about how I really felt about the beatings and about Blake.
Why does he still treat me like I’m the enemy?
The door opened and Sammy and Becky walked slowly into the room.
Becky looked around. “Nothing smashed, that’s a good sign.”
I started to laugh which was followed by Becky’s but Sammy looked bewildered.
“Relax, Sammy. She’s fine.”
“Nobody has ever spoken to my father like that before. Well they treat him like shit, but you? I thought the Night Villain was going to appear.”
“It was needed,” I said simply and they just stared at me with concern again.
“You do know that if he doesn’t get the beatings, Elena…”
“No, Becky. I can’t stand those stupid beatings. He is claimed, he can’t turn dark anymore.”
“Elena you don’t know that,” Sammy said.
I got what it was they were saying and it hit me hard, right in the gut.
“I don’t know if I will be able to handle that again,” I spoke softly.
“Then let the Ancients help find a way to block it, until he dents, Elena. Blake is a jerk, we all know that, but he is stubborn too. If he doesn’t dent soon, he will need a beating again.”
“I’ll think about it, okay. Maybe he will feel sorry about it in the next couple of days and he will stop doing fucked up shit.”
“I doubt that is how it works, but okay. It’s your dragon and who are we to argue with a princess?”
“Stop that.” I threw a pillow at her and she laughed.
They both came to sit on my bed.
“I have to admit, you scared the living shit out of me.”
I blew out a gush of air. “This is so messed up. You guys ever experienced anything like this in Paegeia before?”
They shook their heads.
“He hasn’t even dented yet. I know that saying is seriously annoying you big time, but when he is ready, we are going to see big things from the two of you.”
I huffed. “He’ll never be ready, Sammy. I never wanted to claim him, but my father made me.”
“You really saw him?”
I nodded.
“You never told us about it, so spill. What was it like? Cheng said you were really dark.”
“I was. I almost killed him, Becky, in order to make him promise not to tell anyone the truth.”
“WHAT!”
“I wasn’t myself. He kept saying it was Blake’s emotions that I felt. When Blake blew that fire on me, I thought I was dead. Then I opened my eyes and watched how my body repaired itself. I was still in his flame but it wasn’t alive anymore. When I stood straight and walked away from it, it was as if I was chucked into a picture. I saw everyone’s expression, the camera’s flashes, you guys. I thought I was dead and then something caught my eyes. It disappeared and I caught it again. He wore a dark cloak and I thought that it was the reaper.”
Both laughed.
“It’s not funny. I really thought that I was dead. I was frozen in one place and he came nearer until he was right in front of me. When he took off his hood, I still didn’t realize what was happening. I bowed down as it was drilled into us in history. A part of me, I think was shocked to finally see him, you know. He’s nothing like his pictures and the museum has their figures so wrong.”
“Do you really share the same color eyes?”
I nodded again and smiled.
“He walked up to me and touched my shoulder. Told me that I shouldn’t bow down to anyone, and he had a silly name for me. Sweet pea.”
They sighed as tears formed in my eyes.
“The look on my face must have told him that I had no idea who he was, so he asked. When I told him that he was King Albert and not my father….” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I never saw a man break down like that.”
“Elena, if there was something your mom and dad wanted it was you. For centuries they waited and waited.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Tanya was supposed to stay with me, raise me, tell me from a young age who I was but Herbert, or Jako, whoever he was, her husband found us. He took the responsibility to keep me safe and moved a lot. She was Chromatic, couldn’t change and she left. He told me the truth once but Tanya said I couldn’t handle it and she had to erase my memories. She erased a lot and I knew my father told me about Paegeia through stories, but I couldn’t remember them anymore.”
“Did you tell King Albert the truth, that you knew who you were or did evil Elena screw that up too?”
“No, the funny thing was at that moment, I didn’t feel evil anymore. I was myself and yes, I did tell him that he was my father but he is so smart, saw right through that one too and asked when I discovered it. So I told him and I had to tell him that my mother’s dragon betrayed her, broke her promise. Now I know why she haunted my dreams.”
“To think she was trying to tell you for such a long time to find Tanya.”
“I didn’t know at that time that it was Tanya.”
“You never knew what she looked like?”
“I did, had a photo Herbert didn’t know about, but there were no pictures of Tanya this side, so I couldn’t put two and two together like Lucian.”
“Lucian knew?”
“Yes, for how long, that I don’t know. She said he guessed it on the first try because of the promise she had with my mom. She couldn’t tell anybody except me.”
“He died knowing that you were never his.” Sammy had tears in her eyes.
“I was his, Sammy,” I said. It was silent for a short while. “I dreamt about him too, the way I dreamt about my mom. He guided me through so many things but for some reason he couldn’t just say it. Whenever he wanted to tell me, nothing came out.”
“Wait, what? You dreamed about Lucian?” Becky asked.
“Yes, I know it sounds messed up.”
“Is that how you knew it wasn’t the right date?”
“Yip, I just couldn’t tell you that Lucian told me. I was scared.”
“Elena.”
“No, Becky. You guys would’ve thought I was busy losing it and I knew it was real, so I kept it from you guys so I could try to discover what his date meant and it worked.”
“Still, you kept something from us, and that’s what’s worrying me. How much more are you still keeping?”
Tears filled my eyes again.
“Elena.”
“I can’t, I promised, but there is one more. I just can’t tell anybody.”
They both just stared at me and a tear rolled over my cheek. I wiped it away. “It’s a good one too and it sucks that I can’t share it with you guys.”
Sammy hugged me and Becky stroked my back. “Please don’t make me break a promise.” I looked at Becky as I knew she would push and push until I told her that my father was still alive, trapped in Etan. She would tell someone and that would be just the wrong thing to do. I was sure that Blake already knew that part.
“Okay, but will you tell us if you feel the time is right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what it is you are hiding, but something tells me the time isn’t right, otherwise you would.”
I nodded. I would never tell, but if that was going to ease her mind then so be it.
“I can wait.” She smiled again and I giggled.
“It might be a long wait.”
“Then I’ll ask George for his essence. He’s been dying to give it to me ever since he dented. I thought it was rare.”
Sammy laughed. “It is with normal bonds but not with dents.”
“You thought about giving Dean your essence?”
“And be stuck with him forever?”
We both laughed.
“Shame on you Sammy. I thought you guys were a match made in heaven.”
“I still do too, but I don’t know him that well yet. He might turn into my worst nightmare when the honeymoon phase is over.”
Becky bumped her softly.
“He even thought that the first foretelling Irene made was about us. He said the leaves inside gave him an inkling.”
“An inkling?” I laughed.
“Yes, idiot. But I know it’s not about us. It’s a different Leaf.” She smiled and looked at me.
“Urgh! I wish people would stop saying that. Lucian said that too, you guys are wrong. Your brother will never feel that way about me. That I can promise you.”
“Sure, just like George hated my guts and now he is my constant shadow.”
“You love George, it’s different.”
“You’ll love my brother too,” Sammy chirped
I scrunched up my face. “I’m scared about that. He really hurt me once, and I don’t want him to do that again, Sammy.”
“It’s going to be different.”
“I don’t think that will alleviate my fears, Samantha.” I got up. “Besides, I’m no match against Tabitha and I’m fine with that. I don’t need Blake, I just need the mutt who is inside of him.” They wanted to protest about the Tabitha comment but they laughed instead. It wasn’t real, I could tell when it was fake.
They felt my pain and that is why I loved them so much.
The constant worrying about him that night when I was lying in my bed, elevated. He’d gotten a beating again and when I closed my eyes, I would see blood on the walls. Why wouldn’t he just come back?
Did he just hear that?
I hated the fact that he was so connected to me and that he knew what I still felt toward him.
That deep down inside I still had feelings for him but at the same time how disgusted I was about those same feelings.
I fell asleep and thanked Heaven no blood on the walls appeared in my dreams this time.
THROUGH THE COURSE of the next week, I managed to not think about things the way I used to anymore.
I had to protect myself from him somehow and not thinking about certain things was the best I could do, but to share classes with dragons and riders was beginning to make me realize just how alone I was in all of this.
Sure my friends were around me, but I couldn’t share in most of their conversations because it was about frawsome lectures that helped them with enhancing their bonds, or partnerships. The times that they practiced in the air was the hardest. I missed the clouds, the wind against my face and beneath my wings. I missed the sky.
I decided to skip the last afternoon’s lecture, which was another flying lesson: Aviant class, and found myself sitting on the edge of Dragonia Academy, by the same boulders where Cheng used to tell me about Paegeia’s history.
I didn’t turn my back against the view anymore and stared at acres and acres of beauty and open land. The mountains were on the horizon and the light dangling on some of the tops were beautiful.
I heard footsteps coming closer and when I looked up, I saw Cheng.
“What are you doing here?” I smiled, and was out of my element to find him here once again.
“Master Longwei asked me to come, besides, University is boring.”
I giggled. “I’m sure you could teach them something instead.”
He sat down next to me and just looked at me for a short while. “How are you doing, Elena?”
I sighed. “Fine, I guess.”
“The professors complain that you aren’t paying attention in class.”
“You wouldn’t either, if you were in my position, Cheng.”
He smiled and stared out in front of us, admiring the view. “To think the last time we were here, none of us had any idea who you were.”
“I doubt that, you must have had a theory.”
He laughed. “You know me so well.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“And what, let everyone tell me how raving mad and far-fetched my theories were? Besides, all the professors had that same theory, Elena, we just didn’t know how it was possible for you to get past the wall.”
“They did?”
“Master Longwei told me that Professor Pheizer was the worst. She had a lot of theories but they all said it was far-fetched.”
“She did?”
“Yes, she had a gift when it came to ascending and bonds, that type of thing.”
“No wonder she stared at me so many times when Cara made her appearance.”
“She threw all of us off, Elena.”
Silence filled in again.
“I miss her so much Cheng.” I felt like crying again but a princess doesn’t cry in public. “I miss the sky, the wind on my face, beneath my wings and classes like the one I’m skipping right now, well, it’s like they rub in the things I longed for the most. Without Blake, I’ll never be up in the sky again.”
He squinted at me.
“You don’t need Blake.” He got up and started to pull his shirt off.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you what you long for the most. The sky.”
“Are you serious?” I looked away as he started pulling off his pants, until I heard the plop and tear sound of the transformation being made.
When I looked back a beautiful bronze dragon with a tail that fanned out into the shape of a crown stood in Cheng’s place.
“Your wish is my command princess, now let’s go.”
I giggled, and didn’t think twice. He opened his wing and I climbed on until I reached his back.
I grabbed ahold of his horns on his back and held on tight. I spoke an incantation for extra eyelids to protect my eyes from the wind.
“I’m ready.”
The lift off was exhilarating, it wasn’t like the time I was a dragon myself, but it was just as fun, knowing in a couple of minutes I was going to glide on a bed of clouds.
A shriek of excitement left my lips as the ground came near and then I saw Cheng opening his wings and the wind pushed us up with a jolt. I closed my eyes as the wind brushed against my face and wanted to stretch out my hands, but the fear of falling was still inside of me. I didn’t have my wings anymore, and although I did trust Cheng, there was still that small part of my fear keeping me from completely letting go.
“Open your eyes, Elena,” Cheng said and I giggled.
“How did you know they were closed?” I yelled back.
“I know you.”
I opened them and it was breathtaking. Below us were clouds as far as I could see on both sides. They were purple and pink, with a tinge of orange lingering inside of them with the sun at our backs.
A feeling of pure belonging filled my gut. I remembered what Cara had told me once, when we found that place that was in my dream. How Paegeia was always inside of me. I didn’t realize what she’d meant back then, but being on Cheng’s back, flying through the sky, I could feel what she meant now.
This is where I belonged, in the sky, it was my birthright and one I’d only come to realize now. My destiny was always to be a rider. To spend my time on the back of a dragon.
I could feel Cheng descending and we landed on the top of a mountain that I’d admired from afar.
It always amazed me how beautiful the tops of mountains were, and we found a spot from which we could see the entirety of Paegeia.
It was so beautiful.
I slid off his back and he didn’t transform back to his human form. He lay next to me in his dragon form.
We just admired the beauty of this world from above.
“You see that part in the distance?” he asked me in a deep voice.
I looked to where his big head was staring and I found a dark shadowy place in the distance.
“Is that…”
“It’s Etan, well, the Creepers.”
The shadow reached for miles and miles. It had to be huge and again the footage of what I’d seen once on Lucille’s television didn’t capture it at all.
“One day, Elena. You’re going to be able to destroy it, to reach all those people behind and free them.
“How Cheng?”
“I don’t know but it’s your destiny, it’s in the Book of Shadows.” I looked at him.
“When it feels as if the darkness will descend, a united team will rise and defend. The power to see their destiny through, lies within the hearts of an unlikely two. Their strength, power and love as one, liberty brought by The Courageous and the Prodigal Son.”
“And how do you know that even belongs to me and Blake?”
“It was one of the foretellings Irene saw after Blake’s egg hatched. You are his rider, Elena.”
“I saw what the Creepers can do, it’s scary and sorry if I’m not all giddy, wanting to fly off into the sunset to go and try it out.”
“The two of you will succeed where everyone else failed, Elena.”
“How, Cheng? Those things, they tear through everything that comes too close to them.”
“I’m not a Moon-Bolt, Elena, and I doubt if I was one that I would be able to see how you were going to do that. Something about your bloodline is just too strong for them to see your future.”
“Fox did, I’m sure he knew who I was.”
“He was like nine hundred years old, Elena. The oldest Moon-Bolt and the most psycho one at that.”
“Still, he saw my future, I know he did.”
“And that was why he wanted to destroy you so badly. I can’t imagine him ever wanting peace.”
“You knew him too?”
“No, but my father used to tell me stories about him. Scary stories. Your father, well the one that raised you, must have been one hell of a dragon to have been able to kill him.” He looked at me. “Guess the love of a daughter really gives you strength beyond comprehension.”
“I killed his daughter, Cheng.”
“Elena, you were his daughter.”
I didn’t answer, I would never know how he truly felt, even though he used to tell me that he loved me more than life itself. Now that I knew the truth, it was hard to believe those words.
“Tanya asked me to do her a favor.”
I gasped. “When?” Hoping that maybe King Helmut had gotten it wrong and that she was still out there, alive. She had the ability of persuasion and making people see what they wanted to see.
“While you were asleep after my wondeful day with the Kumutsi.”
“So, she’s really dead.”
“She is, Elena. I was one of the people that had to identify her body.”
“That bastard.”
“The Kumutsi isn’t an easy man. What he says is Law, Elena, even when it comes to his own family.”
“Do you know why he killed her?”
“She promised him that nobody would ever come again after Lucian’s departure, she swore on her life.”
“So I killed her too.” I wanted to cry again.
“Don’t think like that. You didn’t kill her, okay? She left you when she wasn’t supposed to, Elena. She made a promise to your mother. She should’ve stayed.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Yes, it does. What she gave me, is something extremely special. Something to make up for what she’d done.”
“What?” I asked feeling a bit annoyed and I just wanted to go back to the academy.
“Close your eyes, and don’t be afraid.”
I squinted at him.
“Trust me Elena, I won’t hurt you.”
I closed my eyes and after a while I felt two human hands resting on my temples. He must have transformed back.
Images flashed through my head. Images that wasn’t mine, or were but I couldn’t remember them.
First of me yelling, I remembered this day, but it disappeared and a younger version of me, much younger, was giggling as my father tickled me, images of the life I couldn’t remember flashed through, stayed with me a couple of seconds and then disappeared again. I couldn’t make any sense of it, and then with a jolt it just stopped.
It opened on a bed. I was about seven years old and my father told me the story about Princess Katia, who was a princess of Paegeia and her mighty dragon, the Rubicon.
“And then the dragon swooped up with his princess on his back and flew into the sunset.”
“No Daddy,” a seven-year-old me said. “It’s not how it goes. You forgot to say that the Rubicon gave his dragon oath to love her forever and ever and then he swooped up with her into the sky and flew into the sunset.”
“Oh, is that so, my little cub?” He started tickling me and my laughter filled the entire room.
I listened to all the stories he told me. From the age of five up to the age of ten. It was about me, but he’d named me Katia and it was about my life, how Tanya escaped with me, leaving the king and queen with broken hearts. But his version of real events were quite different. I went back and I took my place as the princess, it was filled with Creepers, and fighting side by side with the mighty Rubicon who had the ability to turn into a prince. Fighting to get past Creepers to free her people. His stories carried much of Paegeia’s history and he was a master at telling them. There was even a part where I was flying.
It wasn’t in my dragon form, it was on top of a huge dragon, Herbert’s figure. He laughed, but didn’t say a word as I clung onto his back like a monkey. The scales and everything were huge through my childhood eyes. I was three, maybe four, and it was the last night he flew with me like that. It was a memory I wouldn’t have known even if Tanya hadn’t erased my memories. I was too small.
When Cheng’s hands left my temples, my cheeks felt warm; after the tear and pop sound, I opened my eyes and looked at his big scaly figure again.
“She gave them back?” I asked and wiped tears from my eyes.
“She thought that it was something you needed to know. Herbert loved you, Elena. He always did.”
I nodded.
“He tried to tell you what it was you were going to do, in his own not so scary way. He really tried to keep Tanya’s promise.”
“So he did.” But the stories were wrong, well the Rubicon would never give his dragon oath to love and protect the Princess of Paegeia.
I remembered them all now. How important a dragon oath was, more important than a stupid promise, and I even remembered the night my father told me that I was Katia, that Paegeia was real and that dragons and magic did exist. He wanted to take me back then, but I wasn’t ready.
And now that I was, it was too late.
“It’s not too late, Elena.”
I looked at Cheng. “You can hear my thoughts too?”
“No, but that look on your face speaks a thousand words”
“It is, Cheng. Blake despises me, he will never dent and to be honest, I don’t think I want him to either.”
“Why do you say that?” Shock pulled his dragon face.
“Because the dent is not real. It’s a spell and one that will enslave him to me for eternity.”
“Elena, you can’t say that.”
“Oh but it is, Cheng.”
“It’s not. I know it’s not as evil as you’re trying to make it out to be. Didn’t George and Becky show you how strong their bond is?”
“Cheng, they showed me exactly that. George hated Becky’s guts, and then all of a sudden he just became gaga over her. It’s not real.”
“It is, Elena. And something tells me when the right time comes you will see it the way the rest of us do. That foretelling, you should hold on to that, as Irene can see past enchantments and spells. She would’ve said something a long time ago if a dent was like that. She was part of one too, and it’s not a spell.”
I remember the foretelling Cheng and all the rest were speaking about.
The leaves of change will come at last, when the fate of two hearts’ bond is cast. Souls intertwined and hearts no longer torn, through their love Paegeia will once again be reborn.
I guess time truly would tell how this story, about me and Blake and whether that foretelling was about us or not, will end.
