Guilt and grief warred within me. I was sorry to have abandoned the fight. But I had to save Elena. He’d died so a princess could live. And who knew? Maybe one day a reckoning would come.
I returned to Dragonia Academy after I gave them my condolences. I wanted to leave before they could blame me.
Sammy, Lucian, George, and Becky stayed behind, along with a couple of the other students that had attended.
Back in my room at Dragonia, I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling.
Brian’s death was on me. All of it. If I’d told authorities who Elena was, none of this would’ve happened.
None of it.
But I couldn’t tell. The beast wouldn’t let me. Besides, I’d killed Brian. She would hate me if she ever discovered the truth.
She finally woke up. She finally told her story.
Lucian was elated that she had recovered, but the fact that his parents didn’t approve of their relationship ate at him. He wasn’t going to give Elena up.
I saw it, and I hoped she would fight too.
He was worth it.
Still, her tutoring carried on. She needed the extra lessons. Arianna dedicated herself to teaching her for real. She even mused for a while that Elena was a lost princess.
But I insisted that was impossible. The Wall. It always boiled down the fucking Wall. Thank heavens for that, oh and that a dragon always know. That one saved my ass too.
Thursday came faster then I hoped. I wasn’t sick anymore like I used to be in her presence. It was weird.
We went over a couple of conjugations, and she repeated them okay.
“Thank you,” she said. I ignored her. I carried on with pronunciation lesson.
“Thank you, Blake,” she interrupted again, louder this time.
I squinted at her. She just stared at me, guileless and sincere. Let it go, Elena. Just let it go. I repeated the phrase we were studying.
She sighed. Just when I thought she wasn’t going to thank me again, she said it one more time.
“Stop it, Elena. There’s nothing to thank me for, okay? I would’ve done it for anybody in that group.” Harsh. Good.
She narrowed her eyes. Maybe I’d gone too far. “What happened to ‘you’ve got all my respect when you get out of there?’” She wiggled in her chair, making her tone deeper. Was that supposed to sound like me?
I huffed. “To be honest, I didn’t think you would get out of there. So, I lied. Sue me.”
Her mouth fell open. “I thought dragons lived by their promises.”
“Those rules don’t apply to me.”
Her nostrils flared and I was ready to continue our lesson when her shoe connected hard with my shin. She stormed out of the library.
“Elena!” I rubbed my shin hard and cussed.
She didn’t look back or say anything.
My hand burned to zap her with the Pink Kiss. I’d be glad to watch her burn. But she wouldn’t burn; she would Ascend. So I left it. I just rubbed my shin.
I never thought she was going to do that. What had happened to her? A few months ago, she was this timid little thing who wouldn’t dare, and now she was kicking me.
She wasn’t scared of me anymore.
I didn’t like that.
Not one bit.
Adrienne Woods lives in South Africa with her Husband and two beautiful little girls. She writes full time and has recently finished her 18th Novel.
If she isn’t writing she is teaching her bulldogs to stop eating the furniture.
Want to know more about Adrienne and her books.
www.authoradriennewoods.com
Get your pre-order now on all major online platforms for only 99c and sent.
Darkbeam: a Dragonian Series Novel: The Rubicon's Story Part I (The Beam Series Book 2) Page 30
