The next day I felt refreshed, and excited again to start the day.
Aviant was fun, again, but this time, Professor Vladimir and Alex kept a hawk eye on us.
It was exciting to finally fly with my friends. To dive into the air and the fear of slipping off, happened so many times, but I found a way to stay on Blake’s back. It was a bit uncomfortable too as he was just so big, and I wondered many times how on earth we were going to saddle him.
Still, Aviant became one of my favorite subjects.
Art of War was so much different from the day before, and I didn’t see my ass as much this time.
Blake had to really duck and dive, but he was fast, and would always find the upper hand. I ended up in so many death grips, that the only thing needed was a twitch of his arm or a flick of his wrist and I would have a broken neck or back.
Still, he was gentle.
The class eventually stopped to watch us spar with each other. I’d really started to get fed up with falling into his grip every time, and grunted slightly as he hit me on the butt, real hard.
Professor Mia scowled at him, which he laughed off.
It was a really good workout. One day I would get the upper hand, and that day was the day that I knew I would be ready.
When the bell rang, it was lunchtime and we went our separate ways on the stairs because I needed a shower.
We met for lunch and then it was the last two classes of the day. Magic Variances.
Professor Gregory and Sir Edward were waiting for us as we entered the Coliseum.
Class was held there whenever we had to learn what Dragonians could use when their dragons were in true form and away from us, or not around.
It used to be such a boring class as I had no partner, or dragon, to help me with, but not this time.
“Elena,” Professor Gregory said as we walked in.
I smiled.
“Blake, don’t transform,” Sir Edward spoke fast as Blake moved to take off his shirt. “You too, George.”
Blake and George stared at one another for a few seconds.
“The rest of you can take a seat.”
The class left and a few minutes later they started to fill the stone steps closest to us.
“What is this about?” Becky wanted to know.
“This lecture is only for dents today. The other bonds, well, they don’t have a problem with this, as their dragons are not the true keepers of their abilities. So it’s easier for them to wield their frost, fire, or acid. Dents, you need to learn how to activate consent,” Professor Gregory spoke.
“So you are going to lecture a class on something you two can’t even do?” Blake squinted.
“Not us, Blake. Our guest.”
A figure entered the Coliseum and I smiled when I saw my Pappi walking with Pedro and one of the Ancient guards.
Everyone bowed, and my Pappi waved it away.
“Thank you for having me today, Sir Edward,” my Pappi said as he took Sir Edward’s hands in his own.
“Believe me, the pleasure is ours.”
He greeted Professor Gregory and they too went to sit with the class.
“Elena, Blake.” Pappi smiled. “Hope you two are not still fighting.”
The class laughed.
“We came to a truce,” I said softly, and Pappi smiled.
“George, Becky. Now the reason I am here is simple. You need to learn how to use your dragon’s abilities.””
Blake shook his head and looked at Pappi. “You know that isn’t possible.”
“It is, with lots and lots of practice,” Pappi said.
“Pappi, what does this entail?” I remembered Blake telling me it was extremely painful.
“Elena, you need to learn how to wield your abilities without Blake having to transform.”
“That has never been my strongest skill. I could hardly do it when I was a dragon.”
“She was never supposed to wake up, so technically you weren’t a dragon.”
“Okay,” I said and looked at Blake again.
“I will take you through each step, Blake, until it becomes like breathing.”
Blake nodded.
“How do you do this, George?” I looked at him. Becky had used her abilities many times while George was in his human form.
“No, Elena. George can’t, that is why I’m here,” Pappi said.
“No, they have. I’ve seen it,” I said and my Pappi looked at both Becky and George, who had a look of confusion on their faces.
“You do it all the time Becky.”
“Not while he is in human form.”
“No, he was. That time in the cafeteria you helped George subdue Blake and, when Lucian died, Nichole tried to hurt me, you wielded your lightning. George held me tight, he wasn’t a dragon.”
“You two can do this already?”
George just looked at the ground. “Elena is right, Becks, we have done this before.”
“I can’t remember that George.” She sounded a bit hysterical, which I didn’t like.
“I do.” He looked at me. “I thought it was your purple lightning that hurt me, it wasn’t. It was Becky.”
“Still, you didn’t feel like you were going to explode?” Blake sounded annoyed.
Explode?
“He has one ability to give, Blake. You have many. You will take more time.”
“I won’t know what Elena needs.”
“It hasn’t come back yet?”
We both shook our heads.
“Give it time, in the meantime practice with the most dangerous of them all.”
“The pink kiss it is then,” Blake said. “So, how did you do this, George?”
“Blake.” He looked surprised. “I don’t know.”
Becky looked at us too. “Me neither.”
“So how do I do this?” He turned to Pappi.
“I’m not going to do that, if it hurts him,” I said to my Pappi.
“Elena,” Blake interjected. “You need to learn how to wield at least one of them. There might come a day when I can’t transform. I need to know that you can wield it then without hurting me.”
“Without hurting you?” Idiot. “And how do you think we are going to get to that stage? I am going to hurt you.”
“It’s okay. I’m the Rubicon.” He gave me a soft smile and made eye contact with Pappi. I didn’t like this at all.
“I’m with Blake,” George said and Becky stared at him with furrowed eyebrows. “We’ve done this before, we just need to learn how.”
“I’m not going to do that. I’ve seen what happens to them. I can’t watch George…” I looked at Blake again. I’d heard his scream. I was sure it had been his now. I couldn’t imagine what sort of pain he had been experiencing.
“I understand how both of you feel, but it will become easier with practice, child. Blake had no idea what he had to do then. With my help, both your dragons will be fine.”
He spoke to the entire class about how dragon keepers need to ease their minds, slow down their heartbeats and just focus on revealing their abilities, guiding their Dragonians to see them. It sounded so insane, impossible, and I gave Blake a slight worried look– worry that my Pappi might actually be speaking the biggest load of dust.
Blake smiled.
When Pappi was done, he turned to Blake. “You ready?”
“I’ll give it a shot.” He sounded eager. I wasn’t.
“Close your eyes,” Pappi instructed and Blake obeyed. “Elena, you too.”
“I really don’t like this.”
“Just do it,” Blake sounded frustrated again. Irritated.
I closed my eyes and saw nothing.
“Blake, clear your mind of worry, of what you felt the first time this happened, think of absolutely nothing.”
Blake must have done it. “Elena, you too.”
I opened my eyes. “How can I think of nothing?”
“Elena.” Blake opened his eyes. “I’ll be fine. Just do as he says, otherwise you are seriously going to put me through a lot of pain.”
My head shot back at him. “Not helping.”
He smiled and closed his eyes again.
I had no choice. Do as Pappi says or put Blake through hell. I closed my eyes and tried my very best to clear my mind, to think of nothing. Just the color black and hoping that it would not hurt Blake.
Everything became super quiet, I closed off everything, then I heard Pappi’s voice.
“Call on your fire.” His tone was so calm and I imagined my fire was playing on my palm the way Blake had told me. I could feel it on my palms and everything. I felt a jolt, something was wrong and my eyes flew open.
I saw Blake flat on the floor, his expression one of agonizing pain, but no sound came from him. Then I realized what Pappi had done: he’d wielded his shield around me so I wouldn’t hear Blake’s pain. I snapped out of everything and ran out of Pappi’s shield. Noises came back, all at once and I fell on my knees next to Blake, who was breathing hard.
“How could you do that?” I yelled at Pappi.
“Child, you need…”
“I don’t need to do anything. If it’s going to hurt him. I don’t–”
“Elena,” Blake said and got up slowly. “You need to learn how to do that without hurting me. Again.” He took a huge breath and got up.
Aghast, I stared at him. “Are you insane? I’m not going to do that again. I would never be able to clear my mind knowing that you go through that.” I stared up at his figure from my position on the ground.
He was insane.
“You need –”
“No, I don’t,” I said. “If you can’t shift releasing my abilities, then I don’t need it.” I got up.
“No.” The word came out harsh. “Again. I’m not going to give up until you get it right.”
“Blake, please, don’t ask –”
“Elena, I need to know that you can protect yourself if I’m not around.” I didn’t like how he said “if I’m not around.”
“Fine, but just remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s going to take time.”
He just nodded and took his stand next to Pappi again.
I looked at Pappi. “No shield this time, please.”
He nodded.
I went to stand on his other side and tried to clear my mind again. The minute I wished for my fire, the same thing happened: an agonizing grunt left Blake’s mouth and I stopped.
I didn’t go to him this time. This was the stupid idiot’s own fault. “Why did you stop? You need to push, Elena.” Blake sounded furious.
“Not if it’s hurting you.”
“There will be a time when you have to do this, with or without thinking that it is going to hurt me. Now try harder.”
He was so adamant, and parts of the old Blake had started to come out again. The one that made me so furious.
“Maybe you two should take a rest.” Pappi said, “And let’s give George and Becky a chance.”
George had a look of utter fear, while Becky…I couldn’t decipher it, but I knew she disliked this as much as I did.
“I’m with Blake, Becks and I have the upper hand here. We’ve done this before.”
“Without knowing how. It was by some sort of accident, George.”
“It’s in me, somewhere.” He sounded so calm.
“I don’t know if I can see you like that.”
“You are not going to. We can do this.”
He stood next to Becky and she looked as if she was about to throw up.
Nevertheless, she closed her eyes and did what Pappi told her to do. Then I could see the hurt pulling on George’s face, but he refused to give up. What was it with them?
I glared at Blake and he shook his head, indicating I shouldn’t say a word.
She would stop if she knew that she was hurting him.
George calmed his face and small sparks danced on Becky’s palms.
All of us just stared at it.
George opened his eyes and smiled softly.
Becky did too and saw George just standing there, without a hint of pain.
“Told you, we can do this.”
She laughed, ran to him and jumped in his arms.
“What did you do?” Blake asked again.
“I knew, Blake. I don’t know how to give the consent as it happened without me knowing I did it. Yes, it was a bit painful in the beginning, but I kept focusing on the part that we’d done this before, and it was knowing that we could. The pain disappeared.”
Blake’s face fell. He didn’t like that he couldn’t do this without experiencing pain. “So you want to tell me it’s a doubt thing?”
“Something like that.”
“You need to let everything go, Blake,” Pappi spoke. “Total surrender.”
Blake’s chuckle wasn’t happy. “That is going to be a slight problem because I’m not built that way.”
“I know.” Pappi didn’t smile.
I looked at the ground with my hands on my hips. I shook my head. “I don’t know if I can do this.” I looked at Pappi. “He’s not built to surrender, and I don’t want him to know what it tastes like either.”
“Elena, we have no choice,” Blake said.
“I do have a choice, and I’m telling you, I can’t. I won’t,” I said, turning around and walking away.
“Elena!” Blake called after me but I didn’t stop. I had to go think about this and just needed some freakin’ distance from him. He was always there, and although I loved his company, there were some times that it still freaked me out. Just a bit. I needed to think by myself and try to make sense of how this was going to be of any help.
Becky found me in the room later that afternoon. I didn’t hear her come in because I was listening to my music.
I only saw her as she walked into my line of sight.
“Sorry.” She smiled, and I took out my earplugs. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay,” I said and lay with my head propped up on my hand.
“It really does get better.”
“Becky.” I smiled. “You and George, even though it was by accident, found a way to do this. He completely surrendered to you.” I broke my gaze with her. “I know what Blake is capable of, but I know what he isn’t to. I’m not going to force him to surrender. It’s not who he is.”
“It’s not that he doesn’t want to Elena, he doesn’t know how to, and that fact scares him more than surrendering everything. Not trying would do more harm than not wanting surrender for him.” She sighed. “I just wish George could get a glimpse of the future. It sucks not knowing what’s going to happen.”
“He hasn’t even seen a glimpse yet?”
She shook her head.
“Blake saw something.”
“What do you mean he saw something? Something of the future?”
I nodded. “It came out as gibberish though. We have no idea what is going to happen.”
“What did he see?”
“Us fighting the Saadedine.”
She gaped at me.
“He looks like a fire-breathing crow next to him, Becky.”
“How do you know that?”
I took a huge breath. “I saw the picture before he got the foretelling.”
“What?”
“I think it’s his Moon-Bolt part that was finally being activated. The only problem is, we have no idea what it is that can kill the Saadedine.”
“Your blood?”
I shook my head. “The way Blake said it, well, they said it didn’t sound like my blood. It’s called the missing ingredient, something stronger than my blood.”
“That cannot be good.”
“Oh, that is not all of it. If we don’t find it –” Tears welled up in my eyes.“– one of us is going to die.”
