Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (2 page)

THE CAMERAS STILL flashed as we reached the carriages. Everyone was outside now. King Helmut bowed his head when he saw me and I shook my head slightly with a small smile.

I had to admit that it felt good, standing up to the Ancients. I couldn’t believe that they would do that to all of these people.

But I refused to let them get their wish this time. They hadn’t won and everyone was safe.

I saw Blake putting my bag into one of the carriages and giving his to his father. He wasn’t going to come with us to Dragonia Academy?

I didn’t like that, but a part of me didn’t want him to come because I knew he was Tabitha’s.

I felt so bad about kissing him not just once, but four times.

He still made me so confused and I let out a huge breath just trying to make sense of this sudden change in him.

“Hey.” Blake touched my arm. I hadn’t even seen him walking my way.

“I take it you are not coming with us?”

“All of them are safe, Elena. They have you.”

“Oh, shut up.” I smacked him hard on the chest, playfully and he laughed. Flashes reflected around us.

“Can’t they just go home?”

Blake laughed. “You’d better get used to this as it’s going to be our life from now on.”

I smiled. I liked the “our life” part. Still not knowing in what context he meant it, I assumed he was referring to the fact that he was my dragon—that wasn’t going to change. Yeah, it could only be that. Nothing more.

“I have to go with my father. He wants some information.” A huge grin spread over his face as he looked down. “I think he is going to start the Dragon League again.”

“What?”

“Just a small inkling, otherwise I have no idea why he wants this.”

I wielded my shield around us and couldn’t hear anything that was going on in the background.

“You promised you wouldn’t—”

“I’m not stupid. I know what he will do. He can’t know.”

“Okay, then I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

“I won’t be gone that long, three days at the most. King Helmut wants to know a couple of things too.”

“Okay,” I said. He opened the door to one of the carriages and I got in.

He tapped twice on the carriage and I watched him leave.

This wasn’t good. I was falling for him head over heels and I didn’t know what to do anymore.

I’d promised Tabitha.

I’d broken so many promises already.

I had to give him up. He had never been mine, and if it wasn’t for the Dent, a procedure I still didn’t understand, he still wouldn’t have been mine.

When we reached Dragonia Academy, Master Longwei took the refugees to empty staff quarters. It was like a castle and I was sure they would be more than comfortable.

Annie stayed with Constance and we parted ways after I said goodbye and went up to my room.

The meeting had drained me, but I’d never felt so confident in my entire life.

I’d stood up to all of them. Including Caleb, who wasn’t a king in my eyes anymore. He didn’t deserve that title, no matter what King Helmut said.

I found both my friends in our room when I opened the door.

“You’re back!” Sammy yelled, getting up and running over for a hug. I folded my arms around her and I could tell that it surprised her when she froze for a few seconds.

“You are okay!” she said. “Just like he promised.”

I pushed her back. “What are you talking about?”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing. What matters is that you are okay.”

I laughed. “I was alone with your brother for like a month. We talked, Samantha.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You did?”

I looked at Becky, who just raised her one eyebrow with a knowing smile. “I hope you apologized to him.”

I laughed. “Well to be honest he’s the one who can’t stop apologizing.”

“So how many times did he make his dragon oath?”

We all laughed.

“Once.”

They gasped.

“I almost killed him. I hate that dragons do that.”

“So when did you guys have this talk?” Becky wanted to know.

“Well with his dragon form, plenty of times. With the human, the night I discovered I was in Etan all along and when I discovered all the times he’d tried to find me. The sonic device did come in handy.” I looked at Sammy.

“So you’re an item now?” Becky wanted to know. All three of us had ended up sitting on her bed.

“I wouldn’t say that, but he definitely wants to be my dragon.”

“Elena, he wants to be more than just your dragon, I can promise you that.”

“It’s complicated Becky.”

“No, it’s not.”

I sighed. She would just get upset if I told her the truth.

“And don’t you dare say it, Elena.” She sounded serious.

“Then explain it to me, please.”

“You didn’t ask him?”

“I did, but he couldn’t tell me.”

“He couldn’t or he wouldn’t?”

“Is there a difference? It’s not him, Becky. He hated my guts, treated me like shit. How can I be the only one who remembers that?”

“Don’t, please,” Sammy begged.

“There is a huge difference between wouldn’t and couldn’t. George wouldn’t tell me either, because of what is at stake, not because he doesn’t know.”

I shook my head. “It still doesn’t explain the change in them, and that I can’t trust. Not this time.” I got up and walked to the bathroom.

I was going to feel like this every time I wasn’t near him. The doubts would come and it would drive us apart eventually.

WE DIDN’T SPEAK about the Dent anymore. I knew it was hard for Becky too. She was head over heels for George and loved him with all her heart. Thinking that it could be what I said it was, was too hard for her to admit.

I couldn’t sleep that night either. I kept thinking about so many things.

Okay, not about many, about one: Blake. I hated this so much. I didn’t want my life to revolve around him. I was more than that. But I couldn’t get him off my mind.

I drifted away, and just like before I started to see the faint light of torches.

My heart started to beat frantically and the entire scene engulfed me.

I was on my back, my hands were being held down by Zac and Patrick, and Billy was starting to unbuckle his belt. Seymour had just finished, and was spent. Once again I felt so worthless, I hated it. Huge trees formed a canopy over the entire scene. I always wished right at this spot that Cara was still inside of me, so that I could scorch their asses before any of this happened.

Their laughter and what they were saying had started to die out. Their lips still moved and as they laughed, making jokes…no sound came.

This had never happened before in my dreams, and then the impossible happened.

An invisible hand grabbed Billy and threw him forcefully against a tree.

A pink flame engulfed the scene first, before he did.

Zac and Patrick were hit with the pink kiss first and I was free. The others actually tried to fight against Blake, but in a matter of seconds it was all over and…I bolted upright in my bed.

My heart raced, as if I had been in a sprint. But what I felt in my gut wasn’t fear, it was something else. Revenge. Even if that’d never happened, I felt it.

He did it.
A small chuckle escaped my lips.

He couldn’t be here, but he’d found a way to change that dream, just like the others.

I gasped as I realized where he was. He was in Tith, I was in Elm.

Had he really seen that from that distance?

I knew he struggled with me close by him, he’d told me so himself. It was too fast, and yet, he’d changed it tonight all the way from Tith.
Was he okay?

I wanted to cry again, not because of what had happened in that forest that night, but for being stupid enough to even try to negotiate with Tabitha.

“This isn’t real,” I kept saying over and over to myself. The Blake you truly want is gone, he is under a spell even if he thinks it isn’t.

I fell back into my pillow and sleep finally came after I made peace, sort of, with everything.

THE NEXT MORNING I found Tabitha in the cafeteria. She looked up at me, but the look she gave me wasn’t friendly at all. It was as if she knew what had happened. Had he told her the truth? My heart was pounding, not knowing what she knew.

I looked back down and walked to the buffet.

Chef smiled as he saw me. “Back from Etan?”

“Finally,” I said.

“What you did for Constance, Elena…”

“Please don’t. It was the best thing I could have done for both of them.”

“Still, the papers this morning were filled with pictures of that reunion.”

I smiled, but it disappeared as I remembered flashes going off while Blake and I talked. “Can I see it?” I asked and Chef smiled as he handed a copy to me.

I closed my eyes as I stared at a picture of Blake rubbing his chest and me just after I hit him. We looked like old friends, both smiling.

I knew Tabitha had seen this.

“Thanks,” I smiled and gave it back to Chef.

I dished up oatmeal and moved on as Chef spoke to a person next to me. I moved with the line, picking up some yogurt and honey and found Tabitha at the end of the buffet.

“Elena,” she said.

“Tabitha.”

The noise in the cafeteria disappeared immediately and I knew she wanted a private word, sealing us both inside her shield.

“Did you forget the promise you made?”

“No, I didn’t. Nothing happened. We simply saw things that were hard to deal with and it brought me closer to his dragon form,” I lied.

She gave me an eye roll. “You think I’m an idiot? I saw those pictures.”

“You think you saw something. It’s not there, Tabitha.”