I WAS ABSOLUTLEY SPEECHLESS. I’d never even known he had a sister to begin with. He let go of me and walked slowly to the couch with both of his hands in his hair.
“This is so messed up.”
“I’ve got a plan. Do what you need to do and then set him free, Elena.”
“Can I do that?”
He nodded.
“Deal,” I said without thinking it through.
“It’s not easy though.”
“I don’t care.” I couldn’t let Lucian live with the same species that killed his sister. “What happened?”
“When I was nine, four Wyverns came to the castle on my father’s invitation. He wanted to fulfill King Albert’s wish of finding an alliance with them. Wyland was one of the Wyvern chief’s sons. His father was really sick and they sent him instead. His eyes fell on my sister. He was like Paul. Everyone loved him but we learned little of them. They stayed for three months. I thought he was the most amazing being I’d ever met. Well, he fooled us all.” A tear rolled down his cheek at the memory. He wiped it away with a sniff. “I know it was ten years ago but, if you knew Dezi, you would have loved her. I know for a fact she would’ve loved you.”
I moved closer to him and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry you had to lose her.”
“I really miss her a lot. My father changed after that. He told me over the phone how he begged them not to let Paul in here but the Ancients had already made up their mind.”
“How did Dezi die?”
“They never wanted an alliance but information on the land, the castle, and who my father was. My sister fell for him and I guess a small part of Wyland fell for her too. Nobody could pretend like that, nobody.” He looked at me with sorrow filling his eyes.
“At that stage I thought it was cool. I would be the only one in Paegeia who had a Wyvern family. What did I know? I was only nine and naïve.” He stared at the carpet as he said that last word and I could tell he felt shame along with guilt. “The day he decided to strike, my sister caught him as they had made plans. I found her body drowning in her own blood as he stood over her with a dagger in his hand. He’d slit her throat. When I yelled, Emanuel stormed into the room, and their plans were ruined. Wyland and another guy got away but Emanuel killed two of them.”
It all sounded so horrible, to lose a sister that way. Poor King Helmut, and her mother…
“My father got his revenge though. He killed every Wyvern in his path until he found Wyland and he burned his ass slowly.”
I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. “This is really messed up. First Arianna, we overcome that, now this. It’s like fate….”
“Shhh.” He put his finger on my lips. “Don’t think like that. We will get through this too. Like you said, he won’t get between us.”
I nodded. “He knows who I am. It’s only a matter of time before he shares it with someone, Lucian.”
“I know. When he does, we’ll pretend that it doesn’t matter. Okay.”
“Okay.” It barely came out.
We looked at each other and Lucian leaned in closer. Our lips brushed gently against one another before it turned into a kiss. It was hard, fast and greedy, almost feverish. I couldn’t recall Lucian ever kissing me like that. It felt if this was the last kiss we would ever share.
Please, don’t let it be the last kiss.
He stayed the rest of the afternoon as he’d just walked out of his last class of the day.
We fell asleep on the couch and when we both woke up the sun was starting to set. None of the girls were in the room so I laid my head back onto his chest. I could sleep next to him like this forever.
At dinner, Paul just stared at us. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time. “He knows we know,” I whispered to Lucian.
“Keep it cool. It’s fine.” He gave me a smile and kissed the tip of my nose.
I giggled.
The next day I found Paul at our Art of War lesson. Professor Mia had a bright smile over her face as she spoke to him over to the side of the room. She couldn’t get enough of him. It must be a Wyvern thing.
Our eyes met and I looked away.
I know he knows about me. Every dragon knows who he’s rider is.
“Good morning class, please take a seat.” Professor Mia gestured with one of her hands to the bleachers.
I took a seat next to Finn. The girls in the front row whispered to one another and by the smiles on their faces and the way they undressed Paul with their eyes I knew that the subject was him.
“Today is going to be so fun,” Mia said.
Collin was sitting right behind me.
“Paul agreed to teach us more about fighting against Wyverns.” Mia had a huge grin on her face.
Some gasped while others made exciting noises.
I just stared at him. Why would he do that?
“Elena,” Professor Mia called my name. No surprise there.
I got up and Paul put his hand on her arm and shook his head with a very serious look on his face. He leaned in to Professor Mia and whispered something in her ear.
When her eyebrows raised and a gasp left her mouth, I knew exactly what he’d told her. What that had to do with this sparring lesson, I had no clue.
She called Collin’s name, and as I sat back down. Collin jumped up, pretending to be Rocky and bounced on one spot before he ran down the bleachers.
As much as I wanted to rejoice at seeing Collin’s ass getting kicked again, I was hurt that Paul didn’t want to spar with me. For someone who’d really tried to get my attention, I thought he would grab this opportunity with two hands. His actions made me feel as if I carried some sort of disease.
I didn’t pay any attention as Mia worked through the entire class names, except mine. When the bell rang I darted out the dome.
“Elena, wait!”
I should’ve known the jerk would want to explain, but I didn’t care what stupid explanation he had. It was more than enough that I got this on a regular basis from Arianna. I refused to get this from him too.
“Hey, wait.” He grabbed my arm and forced me to turn around to look at him.
“What do you want, Paul? Why didn’t you wanted to fight? I’m not good enough for the mighty Wyvern?” Why did I just say that?
A small smile appeared on his face and I shook my head, turned around, and started to walk away.
“Wait, it’s not like that.”
“I don’t care what it─
“You’re my rider, Elena,” he said it as if voicing that fact made it somehow all make sense. “Something tells me you already know that.” He looked at me with a frown dented deep on his forehead.
I nodded.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“I’m with Lucian, Paul. I was sure you’d figure it out.”
“Elena, this is something we have to sort out.”
“You are a Wyvern. Lucian will never accept it.”
“What are you saying?” He swallowed hard and stared at me with questioning eyes.
“I can’t be your rider if Lucian isn’t okay with it. And believe me he’ll never be okay with it.”
“You can’t run from this,” he spoke softly but his tone was dead serious.
“I know I can’t. But I’d rather die than betray Lucian.” I turned around to walk away.
“What if he approves?”
I laughed and looked at him again. “He’ll never.”
“If he does?”
“Then you have yourself a rider.” I walked a bit faster to the main entrance trying to outrun his voice.
He ran next to me. “Deal. If I see Lucian, I’ll scram.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but smile at him. “That wasn’t what I meant, but something tells me you don’t really care.”
He chuckled. “So you are not even remotely interested in why I declined fighting against you.”
“Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ve got a really good explanation for it.” Sarcasm rolled over my tongue so thick I could almost taste it.
“Believe me I really wanted to. You know, to see what it is you can do, but if I face you, you might Ascend.”
“What!” I stopped in my tracks.
He raised his eyes at me.
“You’re sure about that?” Isn’t that the rare type of Ascension?
He nodded. “Again, something I’ve picked up. I wish I could explain it to you. When I saw you that day in the Auditorium, it all just came to me.”
“What ability do you have?”
He gave me a raised eyebrow look. “You really want me to say it out loud?”
I looked down. He knew I’d heard him inside my head.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked.
“How was I supposed to tell you? After I bumped into you? You would’ve thought I was nuts if I said it out loud.”
“I wouldn’t as I already knew what you were thinking, Elena.”
I gasped.
He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not reading your mind now if that’s what you are thinking, but I can speak to people’s minds, insert thoughts, images, that type of thing. It’s one of the reasons Wyverns are so dangerous. Because you never know which of your thoughts are real and which ones aren’t.”
Shock washed over my body as he said those words. I just kept looking at him with my mouth slightly open.
“What?” He paused in front of me and looked straight into my eyes.
“You can put thoughts of something that’s not real in someone’s mind?”
“Relax, as tempting as it is, I won’t put thoughts in yours.”
Lucian’s fear of him coming in between us just became my own. He had a gift that could do just that.
“So how long have you heard me?”
“It comes and goes.”
He shook his head. “We must have a strong bond.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything without Lover Boy’s permission,” he joked.
“Hahahaha.” I laughed at him sarcastically and we parted ways as I slipped through the main door leading to the cafeteria.
That night when Sammy left for drama club orientation, I pulled Becky down onto the couch. She looked at me surprised, since I’d never done that before. “I’ve got to tell you something, but promise me you won’t say a word to Sammy.”
“Promise,” she said before she properly thought about it.
“I know who my dragon is.”
Her eyes became wide and I stared into huge orbs. “Who? How did you find out?”
“Paul is a telepath. He admitted it to me after Art of War today when he refused to spar with me.”
“Wyverns have riders?” she said shocked. “Did you tell Master Longwei?”
“Oh hell no, Paul doesn’t think I’m ready yet. That is why he doesn’t want to face me in any kind of fighting. The fact that I can hear him in my mind…we have a strong bond, Becky.”
“What does it sound like?”
“Greek,” I said and we both laughed.
“You like him?”
“I don’t know… He has that same mystery as Blake lingering around him. I can feel it pulling me closer to him, but at the same time I have this knot in my stomach that keeps warning me about what he is. It’s like he knew that I could hear him, and nothing that came out of my mouth surprised him.”
Becky laughed. “A dragon always knows who their rider is, Elena.”
“Did George?”
She nodded. “He said the minute I walked off that carriage on my first day, he knew.”
“Then why didn’t he say anything.”
“He’s Chromatic. You really think that they’ll go and blurt out who their riders are? Believe me they’d rather take the beatings before owning up to that.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“Nothing makes sense when it comes to the Chromatics. What does Lucian say about all of this?”
“He’s freaked out,” I sighed.
“A Wyvern is your dragon. This is so messed up,” Becky said as she looked back at me. “Did Lucian tell you about…?”
I nodded. “It’s horrible. He thinks I can claim him and set him free.”
“You would do that? Giving up your dragon is not easy, Elena, especially when he is your dent.”
“What else can I do, Becky? One killed Dezi and to ask Lucian to live with one for the rest of his life…” I shook my head at that thought. “I can’t. Just don’t tell Sammy.” I referred back to Paul being my dragon.
“I promise, but we have to tell her sometime. If she hears it from someone else, she might be hurt.”
“Deal, just give me some time to figure out how.”
It felt good telling one of my friends. Becky sounded excited, but she could definitely feel my worry about Paul being a Wyvern.
When I crawled into bed, I couldn’t sleep. Today had exhausted me but my mind felt refreshed. Could it be Paul’s influence?
I didn’t hear him again as I closed my eyes and said a small prayer.
I thought about my foretelling. ‘A day will come, and a day will go.’ The day is today; the first day knowing that Paul is my dragon. ‘A choice you have to make,’ it must be referring to me claiming him, ‘Otherwise the truth will never be known’; that Wyverns are destined to be good.
