Starlight (The Dragonian Series Book 5) (11 page)

“Plenty of camping and plenty of learning.”

“When do you want to go?”

“Well, by your previous reply, not anytime soon.”

I laughed again.

“But I have to get back to Etan, Elena. And my father wants to put a couple of dragons on the other side.”

“When?” I didn’t like this at all. But I understood why they wanted to set up in Etan: For intel.

“This weekend.”

My face fell at once and I sighed. “That soon?”

“Elena, I have to help Tom and August, remember?”

“Blake?” I hated that and wiped my mouth with the napkin.

“I have to help them find Max and Nicky, and hopefully Leana too.”

“And let me guess, I am just going to take you back in and have to come back without you.”

“No, you will be busy taking in some of King Helmut’s men too, and bringing back more farmers. The scientists are ready with the first one hundred buyos,” He smiled.

“They are?” That was fast.

“They’ve worked non-stop, Elena. When a shift went home to sleep, another took their place. They’re ready.”

I nodded.

“You take me in first, and then when you’re done, I’ll be back. It will take you more or less the entire weekend, so let’s say three days.”

I sighed. I still didn’t like it, even if I was going to be busy myself.

“C’mon, it’s not that long.”

I blew out a big gush of air. “You know what they do to dragons, Blake. If Goran finds you...”

“He won’t. I’m not stupid. King Helmut needs Emanual back anyway. At least you will be too busy to worry about stupid things.” He gave me a lopsided grin.

I squinted at him. “Losing you is not stupid. It’s quite serious and I won’t go through that again.”

“So she does care?”

I narrowed my eyes quickly at him, which made him smile.

He touched my hand gently. His was warm and a current, not the electric kind, ran through my entire body from his touch. It was addictive. “I’ll be fine. Nothing will happen.”

I sighed. “Okay, so this weekend it is, and three days only, Blake. Not negotiable.”

He smiled again. “I thought I could do whatever the hell I wanted.”

“Anything except playing on Etan’s front porch.”

He laughed. “Everything is going to work out just fine. I promise.”

My smile reflected how I felt about all of this. Unsure of the entire finding Max and Nicky thing, but he had promised, and I didn’t want him to break a promise. It sucked big time. It just better work out.

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 his 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 get a saddle on his back.

Still, Aviant became one of my favorite subjects.

Art of War was so much different from yesterday, and I didn’t see my ass as much this time.

Blake had to really duck and dive, but he was really fast and would always find the upper hand. I found myself 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 actually stopped to watch us spar against each other. I’d really started to get fed up with falling into his grip every single time, and grunted slightly as he hit me on the butt, real hard.

Professor Mia just scowled at him, which he laughed off.

It was a really good workout. One day I would get the upper hand on him, 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 in the coliseum 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 went to take off his shirt. “You too, George.”

Blake and George stared at one another for a few short 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 walked into the coliseum and I smiled when I saw my Pappi walking with Pedro and one of the Ancient guards.

Everyone took a bow, and my Pappi waved it away as he wanted none of it.

“Thank you for having me today, Sir Edward,” my Pappi said as he took Sir Edwards 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 spoke 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 that 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 spoke 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. I knew 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 looked at Pappi.

“I’m not going to do that, if it hurts him,” I spoke to my Pappi.

“Elena,” Blake interfered. “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 Blake? I am going to hurt you.”

“It’s okay. I’m the Rubicon.” He gave me a soft smile and looked at Pappi. I didn’t like this at all.

“I’m with Blake,” George said and Becky just stared at him with furrowed eyebrows. “We’ve done this before Becky, 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…” she couldn’t finish her sentence. I looked at Blake again. I’d heard his scream. I was sure it was his now. I couldn’t imagine what sort of pain he was 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 look of worry—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 spoke and Blake did it. “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, the expression on his face was 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 that 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 really loudly.

“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.

I stared at him with a gaping mouth. “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 interrupted him. “If you can’t shift releasing my abilities, then I don’t need it.” I got up.

“No,” he sounded 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 the other side of him 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 on his face, while Becky…I couldn’t decipher it, but I knew she didn’t like 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 like 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 looked furiously 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.