Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (65 page)

He finally smiled, and my legs carried me forward. I flung myself into his arms and just started to kiss him. He hugged me tighter and his lips brushed my neck softly as he twirled me around.

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” he whispered. “I missed you so much.”

“I thought you were dead,” I cried softly.

He kissed me on the temple and his lips lingered for a few seconds. I just breathed in his scent. I was never going to let him go. I knew that now.

“I thought
you
were dead.” His voice broke too, lips still lingering on my temple as his fingers held the back of my head gently, slightly pulling my hairdo out of place.

“Weeds don’t die that easily.” I laughed and cried all at the same time.

His body shook slightly from laughter as he pulled his head inches back to look at me. Tears lingered in his own eyes, but he had a smile on his face. One that reached his eyes and made my stomach flutter. His hair was a bit longer, he looked tired but he was alive and real. I touched his face with my one hand and he closed his eyes. He opened them again.

“You are far from a weed, Elena. You are a rose.”

I giggled.

“A rose?” I asked.

“Yes.” He hugged me tight again. “And I’m the thorn, the type that hurts like hell.”

Our lips touched one another again. He sounded so goofy, and didn’t give a shit if millions of people were staring.

MY FATHER CLEARED his throat and our kiss broke.

“Welcome back Blake, for a minute I thought you weren’t going to make it,” my father said.

“My king, good to see you are looking healthier.”

I hit my dad playfully on his arm. “You knew?”

“It was a surprise, sweet pea.” He laughed. “Why do you think I chose that song?”

“How long did you know?” I sounded upset, ignoring his last statement. If he knew how close I was, even if I’d said I would be patient, he wouldn’t have kept this from me.

“This morning,” Blake answered instead. “It wasn’t that long and I flew here as fast as I could when my dad finally told me that you’d woken up. I literally landed ten minutes ago and I still had to sing,” Blake said.

I laughed again and gave him a hug around his waist.

My father cleared his throat and looked at both of us with raised eyebrows.

“Seriously. I’m nineteen.”

“Don’t worry, I got the speech already,” Blake said, looking at my father.

I looked at him.
From who?
And then I remembered that day in the manor. Sir Robert and Isabel. His arm was still around my waist.

“So did you get your stupid orbs?” I asked him.

“Oh they are far from stupid, and I think it’s time I shared with everyone what it is they can do.”

“What they do?”

He raised his eyebrows. “It’s a surprise Elena, so go dress warm, wear a rain coat and boots.”

“What, why?” It was a beautiful night, no clouds or even a hint of a rainstorm coming.

“Just do it. I don’t want you to ruin that pretty dress of yours.”

My father looked at me with a slight frown. “You too,” Blake said and looked at my dad. “It’s something both of you need to see.”

“Fine, but don’t disappear again.” I held my finger in his face.

“Not in a million years.”

I smiled, turned around and ran in the direction of my room.

I looked back at him hugging his sister and his mom. I had to pinch myself as I rushed up the steps to my room to go and change. It was real, he was here. A million years wasn’t farfetched to me anymore. It could happen: it was Paegeia and I had his Essence.

I had to ask Simone for help getting me out of my dress.

My father had taken in Jeeves and most of King Helmut’s staff. The palace in Tith was going to be our second home.

“I’m so happy that he finally returned, were you surprised?”

“You knew too?” I asked.

“It was a hard surprise to keep, Princess.”

I saw it in her eyes. She knew how much I’d missed him. Sometimes even found me crying on my bed when I thought he was dead, when I was so sure he was dead.
Where the hell was he?

I finally got out of my dress and pulled on my jeans, boots that came up to my calves and a T-shirt with a blazer over it.

I rushed back downstairs as Simone took my dress to the laundry room.

“Enjoy,” she sang and a small giggle escaped her lips as I waved at her.

I found Sir Robert waiting for me, no Blake.

“Don’t worry, he had to set up for this surprise,” he said and I smiled.

“When did he phone you?” I had to know.

“This morning, during breakfast.” They’d had a breakfast just for my father and all his men. We’d been having a girl’s thing, and I’d really tried to enjoy it.

“Blake was speaking so fast, I could hardly hear a word he was saying, but I knew the tone. He was panicking, and then I just had to tell him you’d woken up and were waiting for him.”

I smiled like an idiot.

“It’s a good day, Elena.”

“Yes, the best.”

He took me to the garden by the small waterfall and the huge lake. Gardens would never be just a garden to me anymore.

I found my dad, Annie, Constance, Isabel, Becky, Sammy, George and Emanual all waiting by the lake.

Blake was missing again and I searched everywhere.

I didn’t like this.

“Look up,” my father said and I found him walking on the cliff above the waterfall. He bent down every five yards, placing one of his orbs on a spot. When he was done he dove into the lake and came walking out looking like a Tommy Hilfiger ad.

He shook his head and water splashed all over me.

I laughed, put my hands up in defense and he stopped and gave me another quick kiss on the mouth before he bent down and took the last orb out of his bag.

“I need utter silence now, please. Not a peep.”

We all just looked at him as he took a couple of steps back. He held the orb with both hands and winked at me before he closed his eyes. “And don’t be scared,” he said just as I looked away, and when I looked at him to find out what was up with the
Don’t be scared comment
, the orb in his hand was already glowing.

All the others he placed up on the cliff started to glow too. It was a faint light and then they grew brighter and brighter. They all took on a different color, shooting beams out that connected with the orb in Blake’s hand. He concentrated real hard as he guided all the orb’s colors to the lake. The water started turning blue, then the purple connected with the blue, the pink started to melt into them, and soon all the colors of the rainbow flowed into one another.

It was simply beautiful. A silver spot right into the middle appeared and slowly grew bigger. It moved to the edge and then it turned into a bright silver light. It made the lake look like a big bright moon.

We all gasped at its beauty.

The water started to ripple. Something was in there and I looked at Blake again who was still concentrating.

‘Don’t be afraid.’
That was what he’d said.

I clung onto my father’s arm, who looked calm as always. He gave me a soft smile but didn’t take his eyes off the water as his hand lay on top of mine.

Something started to emerge from the lake.

I didn’t know what it was at first, but halfway through I knew it was two people. One was huge and another was about Sammy’s height.

I thought about the mermaids. My encounter with them hadn’t been a good experience.

They wore cloaks and their faces were covered as they came to a standstill a few feet away, still in the water.

One took off its hood first and revealed a girl in her early twenties. She had purple streaks in her dark, curly short hair and she smiled, looking at Blake, then her eyes found mine. Her smile grew slightly.

It made me feel awkward as I had no idea who she was. I didn’t know her at all. The next one took off its hood and my eyes lingered on him for a few seconds. They grew slightly as I realized who it was.

My heart was beating so fast.
How... this cannot be?

I looked at Blake who was staring at them too.

He nodded his head toward the second figure like a greeting.

I looked back at the man in the lake, who was staring at me now, and I left my father’s arm and ran into the lake.

I could hear how my father said “Thank you.” To who, I didn’t care.

I flung my arms around him. “I’m so sorry.” It barely came out.

“Shhhh, Bear. It’s all right.” He stroked my back. Herbert’s hands were stroking my back.

“How is this possible?”

He laughed, the one that creased up his cheeks, the one that lit up his eyes. His eyes glistened with tears, and he cupped my face gently. They felt so warm. “You still don’t understand what his orbs can do, do you?”

My father was dead. I just stared at him. He looked so real. He had tears in his eyes. He was warm, and then I got it.

Blake could communicate with the dead through them.

I looked back at Blake, at my father and back at Herbert.

“I should’ve never fought with you, you had to raise me when you knew that I killed…” I froze and then looked at the girl next to him. She had dark hair, purple streaks showing here and there. “Cara?”

She smiled. “What took you so long sugar?”

I flung my arms around her. “I missed you so much.”

“What, the rodent still giving you hell? It doesn’t sound like that.”

I squinted not knowing what she meant by that last part, but I didn’t care. She was here, in her own body.

“It’s not what I meant.”

“I know, and I told you I’m always here.” She touched my chest, “Well, figure of speech.”

I smiled and hugged her again. “You taught me so much.”

“That was why my egg hatched, Elena. To guide you. It’s amazing, the afterlife, you just know what you were created for, but you have to wait for it for a very long time, but something tells me you will have your own piece of heaven right here.”

I squeezed her tighter. Something told me she wasn’t staying, as she just stroked my back.

“Jako.” My father stood in front of the person who had raised me in the water.

“Don’t, my king. I always knew when Cara hatched that she’d been created for a bigger destiny.”

King Albert touched Cara’s face gently.

She smiled. “Hey, I remember you.” She hugged my real father. “Always so kind, and we used to play for hours.”

My dad laughed, but there was regret and guilt lacing his face. “It was my pleasure, really. She was a great part of my life.” Cara looked back at me.

“I don’t know how to thank you both,” my father spoke again. “It will never be enough. You stayed when Tanya didn’t.” He looked at Herbert again.

“I should’ve told her sooner,” Herbert answered softly.

“Don’t. It worked out just like it should.” My dad smiled.

They both laughed, as it was something Herbert always said.

“Just enjoy the time you get with her, she is a remarkable young lady, Al.”

“Thanks to you.”

“We have to go, Elena,” Herbert said.

“Already?” I looked at both of them.

“Hey. We want to stay,” Cara said. “We just can’t.”

I nodded.

“Take care of her rodent,” Cara looked past me at Blake. “Or I’ll come haunt your ass.”

“I’d be so lucky,” Blake joked and I gave her another hug and my father too.

“I love you.”

“I love you more, Bear. Always have, always will. See you again one day,” my father said and winked at me.

I watched them go back into the water and needed to say thank you to Blake. He’d given me a chance to say sorry to my father. To say goodbye. Something I’d never thought I would ever get to say. But when I turned around his eyes were closed, concentrating again in order to get them safely back home.

I walked to him slowly, waiting until he’d finished, and then Constance and Isabel gasped. I heard the splashing of water and when I turned to see, all of the people on the shore were bowing down. My father’s cane was on the ground.

I turned around as saw him hugging a smaller figure, crying and whispering.

My legs felt slightly wobbly.
It can’t be.

“Go, Elena,” Blake said and I looked at him. “She really wants to see you.” His eyes were open again.

“I’m so sorry, Katie. I should’ve tried harder,” my father cried softly as I walked back slowly to the lake.

“Shhhh,” she whispered. “I love you so much and I was so lost back then. I made your life a living hell. I’m sorry.” I only heard her voice, my father was blocking her entire body with his.

“You had all the reason in the world to feel lost.”

I just stared at my father’s back. “Elena,” he said. “I want you to meet the bravest woman I’ve ever met. Your mother.”

He turned his head toward me and moved out of the way.

She was gorgeous, just like in the pictures that were hanging on my bedroom’s walls, just like that last dream I’d had of her and that one interview when she’d had no idea I was there. With brown hair and big, doe gray eyes. Her smile made you feel as if you could do anything.
Why couldn’t I look like her?