After a few more seconds’ hesitation, I take off my white top and denim shorts before wading into the river. Aqueous paddles next to me, swimming confidently as if he had been born in the water.
“There, now, was that bad?” My friend grabs my arm and clings to me like a limpet; it’s obvious he’s not confident in the water.
“Will you be okay?” I swim further into the river, making him tense and grip me harder for support. “You don’t look like a confident swimmer.”
“When you’re fire and dark, swimming isn’t really a top priority,” Marco complains, brushing my fringe out of my face. “Let’s try to get this done as quickly as possible, and don’t get me killed.”
“Would I?”
“Yes! You’d leave me to be eaten alive by seaweed!”
“It’s a plant, dumbass.”
“Whatever! Just don’t let go!”
The other students start diving down in the water to practise their air bubbles, ignoring our squabbling. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that no-one has noticed my markings so far.
“Hide my back.”
Marco mutters something inaudible under his breath, wrapping his arms around my waist for support. “Don’t go down too far. Not until you can do the bubble thing.”
“I know,” I sigh.
Aqueous dives under the water, only to re-emerge with a small, clear bubble around his head. Show-off.
“Ready?”
Marco squeezes his eyes shut and buries his face in my hair. “No.”
“Too bad.”
I take one last breath before submerging myself in the water. I concentrate hard on creating a bubble around my head, but I feel no change. After a few seconds, I rise back to the surface, Marco coughing and spluttering behind me.
“Fuck! That was horrid! Why are you water? Couldn’t you have just been wind and make my life ten times easier?” he whines, rubbing his eyes half-heartedly.
“You wanted to be my mentor...”
“I didn’t think this through at all,” he says. “Are we done? I need to adjust my trunks.” He wriggles, yanking at his costume once more.
“Why have you got it if it’s so uncomfortable?”
“I dunno, I think someone’s put something down there.”
“Why, and who, would do that?”
“Fuck me!” He waves a needle-thin piece of plastic in my face. “That’s what’s been bothering me.”
“Gross!” I whack his arm away in embarrassment. “Didn’t you check to see all the labels were off?”
“Guess not. Let’s go again. I feel better now.” He pulls at the blue strap of my bikini top. “Nice costume, by the way. You look good in a bikini.”
I roll my eyes in agitation and try to hide my reddening cheeks. “I didn’t want to be bullied for not wearing one.”
He shrugs. “I wouldn’t have minded; you could have come in the buff.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” I mutter through gritted teeth.
“I know, but-”
I dive underwater again to take him off guard. This time I relax a bit, letting my mind wander instead of thinking so hard and straining myself.
“You did that on purpose!” Marco coughs, spitting water on my neck.
My friend’s voice makes me realize that I’d managed to create the bubble successfully. “I did it!” A clear bubble is wrapped around our heads, allowing us to breathe with no worries.
“Yeah, great.” My friend relaxes his grip around my waist slightly. “That doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
His fringe is now draped over his eyes, and I highly doubt he can see anything.
“You need a haircut.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m not a fan of the shaggy look.”
He sighs irritably. “Whatever.”
Once we reach the surface, Mr Knight inspects my bubble, and deems it worthy enough for us to leave. “Well done, Hazel. You can go.”
To our dismay, someone had thrown our clothes in the river, so we have to walk home in our towels. Marco didn’t seem to care that much, but he complained when I wrapped a towel over my shoulders.
“You’re a quick learner,” Marco comments.
“Thanks. I guess I have to thank you for that.”
He grins and jabs me in the stomach. “Thanks. Just try not to drown people, okay?”
* * *
“Another meeting?” Rocky sighs. “I hate them!” My brother crosses his arms at the table, not touching his breakfast.
This morning we were informed about a Cindaraan meeting that will be held tonight. No-one knows what it’s about, or how interesting it will be.
Knowing Ray, it will probably be extremely dull.
“We joined,” Marco points out, his mouth full of pancake.
Drea growls, nudging Marco’s shoulder, as if to say: why did we do that again?
Marco pats his companion on the head, but her stony expression doesn’t change. I think that when she’s alone with Marco she secretly softens up; not that she would let us know that.
I take another bite of toast before they could ask for my opinion. The Cindaraans are hiding something from us, but I’m too frightened to probe any further. Who knows what I’ll find if I start sniffing around?
My brother rolls his eyes. “For the wrong reasons. I don’t want to watch people getting beaten to a pulp for joining the Krystalans.”
“I’m glad you saw sense,” I squeeze my brother’s hand. “I don’t want you to be one of those kids.”
He huffs. “I still think I should have joined them.” He strokes my hand softly. “At least you’re safe though. That’s all I care about.”
Marco makes sick noises, sticking his finger in front of his mouth for emphasis. This is not appreciated by Rocky, who pushes him so hard he falls off the chair and into a messy heap. I snatch my hand away and cross my arms, glaring at my brother.
“What?”
I don’t answer.
“I’m not apologising.”
Narrowing my eyes, I can see him cracking under the silence.
“Fine. I’m sorry.”
Marco climbs back into his seat, a sour look on his face. Drea growls at Rocky, lashing her clubbed tail and baring her teeth, daring him to do it again.
Rocky raises an eyebrow before changing the topic. “Did Wes find anything about the markings in the book?”
A few days ago, Wes found a book in the library about dragon markings. We both read it carefully, but we hit another dead end. Everyone has started to lose hope; I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.
“No, nothing. Again.”
He frowns. “This isn’t going well. With all the censorship in place, we can’t find anything.”
“There’s that book shop we haven’t tried,” Marco sighs, pushing his empty plate into the middle of the table.
“They won’t let us in; that’s why we haven’t tried it,” Rocky replies through gritted teeth.
Marco shrugs and his face contorts into an angry expression. I don’t understand why they can’t get on. They don’t have to be best mates, just civil.
Aqueous jumps on my lap frantically, growling and tugging my arm. “What’s wrong?” As soon as I stand up, he speeds off down the road, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt behind him. “Aqueous!”
Rocky tries to grab my arm to stop me chasing after him, but I’m already halfway down the road. My companion is jumping in front of a large crowd that has gathered in the town square. Agonised screams are coming out of the middle, making the crowd whoop and cheer hysterically. Aqueous whimpers and hides behind my legs, shaking violently.
Getting grabbed from behind makes me jump, and Rocky angrily mutters in my ear: “Don’t ever do that again!”
“Aqueous ran off, I wasn’t just going to let him go by himself!” I rip my arm out of his grip.
“Shut up!” Someone hisses in front of us.
Confused, I stand up on my tiptoes to get a better
look. The screaming starts again, this time more anguished.
The orange pendant around his neck gives Ray away as he balls his hands into fists. Maya is on the ground in front of him, her face battered and bleeding. A rock levitates from the ground beside him, which then promptly strikes Maya in the face, producing a sickening crack. More people cheer as the rock collides with her face again, but I’m unable to continue looking.
Why is he doing this?
“Mase!” Rocky grits his teeth.
“What?”
“They’re beating Mason up.”
“And Maya.”
“What’s going on?” Marco’s voice makes me jump as he comes up behind me.
“I don’t know. Ray is beating people up.” Rocky replies, his teeth still gritted.
“Marco, Mason is one of them.” I mutter, grabbing his hand for comfort.
This shocks my friend into silence, who slouches slightly. I stand on my tiptoes again, trying to get a better look. Screams divert my attention to Mason, who is now getting electrocuted by one of Ray’s cronies. His body convulses and his eyes bulge as the hot electricity flows through his body before abruptly stopping as Ray turns to address the crowd.
“This-” Ray pauses to face the large crowd “-is what happens if you disobey us! You have pledged your loyalty. Do not go back on it!” He looks back at Maya and spits on her, a dark smirk on his face. “You are one of the lucky ones.”
Ray and his cronies sneer as the crowd parts for them, letting the intimidating group go past. He catches my gaze as he walks by, the smile turning into a scowl. Once he breaks contact, I feel like I can breathe again.
For whatever reason, he does not seem to like me.
The crowd starts to disperse, but some people come forward to kick dirt in the faces of the people left on the ground. Mason writhes around in the ground half conscious, his eyes fluttering and bloodshot.
“Shit!” Rocky runs up to him and crouches in the dirt, holding his friend’s head in his hands.
“I’ll… I’ll call my mum.” Marco murmurs before taking off down the road.
Despite every bone in my body telling me not to, I approach Maya as she lays unmoving on the ground. Her eyes briefly open to look up at me before slowly closing as she loses consciousness. Members of the ground boo, as I wipe blood from her face with my jacket sleeve, but I ignore them. If I face them, it’ll only give them a reason to hurl abuse at me.
“What do we do?” Rocky shakes in the spot, still clutching Mason as if his friend would just drift away.
“Marco is calling his parents, they’ll come get Mason. He’ll be fine, I promise.”
My brother nods, but doesn’t seem to listen to what I’m saying. His eyes are glazed over and empty. Mason means as much to him as Marco does to me.
Marco runs back over, kneeling in the dirt between the two of us. “They’ve sent out for a medical helicopter, he’s being airlifted out of here.”
“Good, once they get here we take Maya to the hospital here.”
12
Chapter Twelve
“Hold her for a second, I’ll run the bath.” With shaky hands, I set the bath up for Maya, while Rocky and Marco stand awkwardly at the door.
I couldn’t just leave her. As soon as I saw her lying there, it didn’t matter how much she’d ignored me or refused to hang out with me; she didn’t deserve that.
“How will this help?” Marco asks.
“It’ll get the blood off. I don’t know what else to do.”
“I can’t believe the hospital refused to treat her,” Rocky mutters. “Just because Ray told them not to; how petty.”
As soon as the helicopter picked Mason up we took Maya to the hospital. Ray had beaten us there and was threatening the staff to not treat any of his victims. Long story short, we left with a few medical supplies thanks to a sympathetic nurse. We had little idea what to do with them, but I knew washing the blood off was a priority. It would allow us to see the wounds and reduce the chance of infection.
The hot water starts to run, and I see Maya stirring in Rocky’s arms. Her eyes flutter open, then just as quickly close and her breathing slows once more.
Marco shuffles his feet uncomfortably. “Can I help at all?”
I turn the tap off as the bath fills up to a reasonable level. “Marco, put her in the bath please?”
Hesitantly, Rocky hands Maya’s limp body carefully over to Marco, trying not to hurt her. Marco heads towards the bath and freezes. “With her clothes on?”
“Yeah. I’ll take them off when you two are outside.”
Maya is placed carefully in the bath. Upon impact with the warm water her eyes fly open. “Wha...”
“You can leave now.”
Rocky opens his mouth as if to protest, but quickly thinks better and shuts it before leaving. Marco stays behind for a second and strokes my arm softly before leaving. Maya looks at me, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and confusion.
“Shh. It’s okay,” I whisper as her eyes dart around the room.
“Haze...”
“You’re fine.” I wipe some of the blood off her face with a sponge before beginning to take her clothes off.
She puts up no resistance, just looks at me with tear-filled eyes. “I hurt...” she mutters.
“I know.”
She winces as I pull her shirt over her head. “What are you...?”
“Unless you want soaking wet clothes, I think it’s best I take them off.” I reply, throwing her wet shirt in the sink.
She sniffles. “But I embarrassed myself...”
“I’m sure you didn’t ask to get beaten up.” Her bra is also thrown in the sink.
Sniffling, she unzips her jeans slowly and tries to pull them down, but can’t push them father than her knees. “No. I pissed myself...”
I didn’t want to bring up the fact that I saw the wet patch between her legs before she came in. “It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.” I pull her jeans down the rest of the way for her.
She grabs my arm and pushes her cheek against my hand. “Why are you doing this for me?”
“I couldn’t leave you there.” I put a towel over her body to make her feel more at ease, while also throwing her jeans and underwear in the sink.
“Why?”
“Because... Well, we were friends once. It wouldn’t feel right to leave you there to suffer.”
“What about Mason?”
I shuffle uncomfortably. “Marco called his parents to take him to a hospital outside of Aria. I can’t remember the name.”
“They won’t let him go, surely...?” She protests, pulling the towel further up her chest.
“I don’t think Mason’s parents were in the mood to argue.”
She sighs and sinks lower into the bath, so her mouth is just above the water. The water has taken on a pink tint, so it might be time for her to get out.
“Are you okay to stand?” I pull the plug out and she sits up fearfully.
“I think so...”
With a lot of effort, she manages to stand and step out of the bath, clinging to me shakily. I swap her soaking wet towel for a dry one, and let her sit on the toilet seat while I usher the boys in. They both step in hesitantly, their concerned gazes locked on the injured girl. She looks a little better not covered in blood, but now the bruising is revealed, huge purple splotches covering her face. The dark-haired girl looks up as they walk in, and clings to the towel wrapped around her, tugging at the bottom in embarrassment.
“Are you okay?” Rocky asks softly.
“Is Mason okay?” Maya ignores Rocky, her attention fixed on Marco.
My friend nods slowly. “He will be. He’s got the best doctors in the country looking after him now.”
Maya sighs in relief. “Thank fuck.”
Rocky scrunches his nose at her use of the language, making me roll my eyes. I’m not a baby anymore. I know what the words mean.
“What happened?” I throw the wet towel in
the sink with the rest of her clothes. She doesn’t seem interested in putting them back on.
Her lip quivers. “We were spying on the Cindaraans for the Krystalans. But we were reckless. I didn’t realize it was so serious around here; I just thought it would be a bit of fun. A fight between Mason and Ray lead to Rayna getting interrogated, because she was close to Mason. She let everything spill, and Ray wanted to punish all of us. Now Rayna’s dead and the rest of us are injured. The Instructors did nothing, the assholes; Ray has connections everywhere. This whole Cindaraan thing is a lot worse than you think it is. I regret spying in the first damn place.”
Marco stays silent, but Rocky says, “You must have known spying wouldn’t end well.”
An elbow in the stomach from me makes him smile sheepishly.
Maya shrugs. “I don’t need to justify my actions to you.”
“Woah, no need to get nasty,” Marco snaps, crossing his arms over his chest. “We had no obligation to help you.”
Maya considers this and sighs. “Sorry.”
“Where can she stay?” Rocky bites his lip thoughtfully. “We can’t take her back to the cabin yet, she’ll get beaten up again.”
“We could book a hotel room for her for the night.” Marco waves his mobile phone in the air. “I could ring up now.”
Before Maya can protest, I nod at him enthusiastically. “Yeah, do it.”
Marco looks between us before walking outside to make the call. Maya glares at me, but says nothing.
“You need to rest.” I cross my arms as she snorts irritably. “Going to your cabin would be suicide. You’re not stupid; you know what will happen.”
She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I just want to see Mason.”
“Well, you can’t. He’s off-site.” As I squeeze the water out of her clothes in the sink, I can feel her angry gaze burning into my back.
My brother takes a threatening step towards the injured girl. “If you’re going to be stroppy, we could just take you back to the Square.”
She calls his bluff. “Fine. Go on.”
Thankfully Marco re-enters the room, preventing an argument from breaking out. “I’ve booked a room for three nights for you.”
Maya keeps a careful eye on Rocky when speaking. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” Her tone is slow and agitated, but Marco makes no comment.
Elemental Dragons Book 1: Blood and Water Page 10
