DARIUS WAS DEAD. Whoever lingered in the trees had snapped his neck. He had a big gash of a wound that Lucian or Master Longwei didn’t want me to see. How he’d gotten killed, was beyond my knowledge as Darius and all the other guards were highly trained in combat. Bradley wasn’t asleep that morning when I snuck out, he was drugged. He didn’t see anyone drugging his coffee, or even smelled it as he took sips. Again all the leads just disappeared into thin air.
I was devastated, not knowing why they had picked Darius. He was my guard and what was he thinking of going off alone after a hunch? He reminded me so many times a day to never wander off alone without him. Master Longwei gave me permission to take the day off and I spent it in my room. Lucian gave some of his classes a miss as he was sure whoever killed Darius was coming for me next.
He obviously blamed Paul, who else could have done this?
Police and investigators spent the day searching for clues and some even stayed behind. Master Longwei gave some of the investigators rooms and said they were going to carry on with their investigation tomorrow. I knew there had been someone there, lurking behind those trees. The only question was, did they want to kill me too or had they tried to make me turn around and walk away?
It was scary not knowing if there was someone trying to keep me out of danger or trying to hurt us all.
Some students left the Academy. Their parents didn’t feel that Dragonia could be trusted to protect their children with Blake still absent, even though Master Longwei had a long meeting with all of them that tonight. I guessed it was because it had been someone like Darius with all his training that died, that had gotten the parents really scared.
“It must be Paul.” George jumped quickly to the same conclusion as Lucian the next morning at breakfast.
“They’ve interrogated him yesterday, like the whole day. Kyle, his roommate, said he was in his room sleeping.”
“Becky, Kyle was sleeping too. How did he know that?”
“Apparently he was watching TV till four in the morning.”
“I’m with Lucian. Something is not right. First he had an alibi with Professor Dickson when someone broke into your room and stole your necklace and now Kyle couldn’t sleep. That guy is like a male version of Sleeping Beauty.”
“I’m not going to fight with you about Kyle’s sleeping patterns, George,” Becky said starting to get angry. “Paul has an alibi. Stop blaming him for everything.”
George showed his teeth, got up and left our table.
“He makes me so furious. He doesn’t think properly about stuff, just jumps to conclusions all the time.”
“Becky, what if Paul is behind this?”
“Sammy, I know you guys want to believe he is guilty but they found nothing on him. What if he really is trying to be different from all the other Wyverns? King Albert…”
“King Albert wasn’t here to witness what happened ten years ago, Becky.”
“That was different, Sammy.”
“They are all the same.”
“You can’t say that.” Becky sounded frustrated.
“What happened ten years ago?” I wanted to know and I was sick of no one wanting to tell me.
“Not our story to tell, Elena,” Both said in unison.
Sammy got up. “Lucian is so right. As long as Paul Sutton lives inside Dragonia Academy more people are going to die,” Sammy yelled and left.
Some of the girls that had welcomed Paul threw glares while others clapped their hands for someone willing to say out loud what they were thinking.
Professor Pheizer’s class still carried on as if nothing had happened. She was the only teacher that could take our minds away from the Darius incident.
As soon as we arrived, she collected all our journals and started with her class.
“I see we have an Ascending coming up.” We all looked around to find who she was referring too. My eyes landed on Peter, a small skinny boy resting his head against the wall. His nose was red and he looked like death. “It’s just the flu, Professor.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Peter.”
We all laughed.
“Looking at Peter, what type of ability do you think he will get,” she asked everyone.
“He looks like death,” Simon a Blake-wannabe said. “I’d say the Night Villain.”
“Simon, Night Villain Aascendants have other symptoms far worse than Peter’s. Think, people.”
Green-Vapors, Swallow Annexes, and Sun-Blasts all came forward and every time Professor Pheizer said that their symptoms were different. What those symptoms actually were she didn’t say. I guess she was waiting for more Ascensions to take place that would show us, rather than her telling us.
Flu? The story she told us that first day about the Lord Dickory, jumped into my head. “Snow Dragon,” I said as the image of a frozen, snowy day came into my mind.
“Ah-huh.”
“I’m going to be an Ice-Wielder.” Peter’s head snapped up.
“I thought it was only the flu, Peter,” Professor Pheizer joked which made us all laugh again.
“Tabitha’s ass is mine,” he said through his nose as he lay his head on the wall again, a huge smile plastered on his face.
“Your language, Peter.”
“Sorry, Prof.”
“Now who can tell me what exactly will happen when Peter Ascends?”
The entire class didn’t know as none of us had ever experienced it.
“No one?” she said and went to sit on her desk again.
“You want the symptoms or what actually happens?” Reily asked.
“What actually happens, Reily.”
Professor Pheizer shook her head, not impressed that she didn’t know the answer. I didn’t either since Becky had never told us. She had been way too freaked out.
She went to sit on her desk again. “They say it’s a very special time for Father and child.”
Father and child? I looked at Peter again and even he was listening closely, bad state and all.
“Now I know some of you lost your fathers, but it doesn’t matter.”
My eyes rose. Dad.
“When the Ascension happens you will experience a reunion with your Father. It doesn’t matter if he’s still alive or dead. His spirit will come in the form of a living breathing person. We don’t know what causes this reunion, but it just shows you how special Ascensions are,” she laughed. “Some have told me that it was like having a beer with their father in a pub, talking about everything that matters in that time, others say they thought they were going to die. I guess getting a visit from your Dad that died years ago, might make you think that.”
A second chance with Dad.
It was all I could think about as Professor Pheizer told us what the experience was like. I could tell him how sorry I was, I could tell him I loved him and that I know he was only trying to protect me. I could finally get the answers I’d given up on. Then what my father had been jumped into my head. I lifted up my hand.
Professor Pheizer nodded.
“My father was a dragon, does that matter?”
She smiled and looked down. “I was scared you were going to ask me that, Elena.” She looked at me again. “Your situation is the first of its kind. To be honest I have no idea whether it will be the same as a normal Ascension or not.”
I nodded and it felt as if someone had pulled an invisible plug from my body, letting out all the hope of seeing Dad one more time.
Walking back to the front of the room and letting the issue rest, she gave us a reading assignment to do while she read through our journals.
I couldn’t concentrate as I kept thinking about what I would go through with my Ascension.
“Elena,” Professor Pheizer spoke my name and she gestured with her hand to come to her.
I got up. She had my journal in front of her.
“Do you want to explain to me these colors?”
“I wish I could. I guess the darker ones are like the emotions I don’t understand.”
She smiled. “You are artistic.”
I nodded at her words.
“You’re not the first. I’ll figure it out.” She handed me my journal back and smiled knowingly.
Good luck with that.
When the bell rang for lunch I found Becky at an outside table with George. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but by the stares of everyone around them, and Becky’s hands swinging up in the air, I could tell they were arguing.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you saw your father when you Ascended?” I plunged down onto the bench in front of her.
“What?” Her eyes rose into huge saucers. “How did you know that?”
“It’s part of Ascending, Becky.”
Their argument fell aside at my words, and listened to what Professor Pheizer had told us. Becky leaned into her hands. “I thought I was dying, I didn’t know that it was supposed to happen.” She peeked at me over her fingers first and then she dropped her arms onto the table.
“You saw you father?” George asked and she nodded her head staring at the table. “It was amazing, yet so terrifying. I wasn’t at the lake when I saw him. I was back at home and he was tucking me in, like I was a child.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she started to speak again. “If I’d known it was part of the Ascension process I would’ve stopped panicking so much and just enjoyed every moment. I had a feeling he wanted to tell me something, but he struggled too much to calm me down.” A tear finally rolled down her face as it sunk in that it was the last time she would’ve seen her father. “I got to go,” she said excusing herself and mumbled something to George. I only got the word ‘alone.’
“Sorry George. I didn’t think properly about that one.”
“It’s cool, Elena,” he mumbled as he looked at Becky walking through the main door that led to our rooms.
I felt sorry for her when I finally realized I had just revealed to her that she had lost the only chance she would have with her Dad. Me and my big mouth.
