She nodded, "Yes, the dragons talk to each other, but only a Prime can talk to other dragons."
"And Wyverns?"
"Yes, when we as Dragonborn speak of dragons, we mean both Wyverns and Dragons."
I closed my eyes and shivered as the last of the water emptied with a loud draining sound as it spiraled away.
Dr. Weaver leaned forward and plugged the bath before turning on the tap again. "Even if you weren't a descendent of the Lamberts, you could be considered…" she searched for the right terminology, "a sort of royalty in Dragonborn society because you're a Prime."
I snorted. "I don't care what everyone thinks of me. I need to understand more about... about myself and the Dragonborn." I said from beneath my hair. "I can't understand why you're not telling me what I want to hear, what I need to know."
I picked a leaf off the side of the tub.
Dr. Weaver took her time to respond, leaving me hanging on her every word.
"I think… You must receive information in a way that you can process it and understand it. We're not keeping anything from you, we're trying to make sure that you don't feel too overwhelmed. Of course, if you have questions, we'll answer them, but you haven't asked."
I blew out a breath and shook my head. "I don't want to go back to the Academy."
She tilted her head. "I'm not that surprised you're unhappy. You know this is uncharted territory for us also. We were all in shock that you even received a dragon at all. Then the fact that you were a Prime... and... and that it was obvious that Eondian and Aaraeth had mated…" She looked down at the washcloth in her hands as if it held all the answers. "It's no wonder you left the Academy the way you did. But I promise on my end that we'll give you more support and more answers. If we try to make things better for you, will you give it another try?"
Silence hung in the air, and I shifted, laying back down in the hot water again. Dr. Weaver turned off the tap and frowned at me. "I thought that Becca would look after you…"
I cut her off, "She did."
"What do you say? Can you try to make it work?"
I sighed, "I'm most worried about my dad, but Ashe says it isn't safe for me to visit him yet."
Her wrinkled eyes peered over at me. "Where is your dad? He can come to visit if he likes, but I was told that he's out of the picture for now."
My eyes filled, and cold chills ran down my body. "My grandmother told you that? I hate her." Shaking my head, I eyed Dr. Weaver. "No, he's in the hospital in Dong Hoi." I had to swallow to try to move the lump that had formed in my throat. "He was in a coma when…" I couldn't bear to call her my grandmother again. "She came and brought me here."
The tears that had filled my eyes finally ran down my face, and Dr. Weaver reached over to squeeze my hand.
"Sydney, I had no idea of any of this. Of course, you're struggling after what has happened. But I know Elise, your grandmother, and she's a good person. I know you don't want to hear this, but I'm sure she had her reasons."
I blinked the tears away, angry that this good woman... this tough and wise woman was taking my grandmother's side. "I need to be with him. What if he's scared? What if he needs me?"
She pursed her lips before nodding. "What do you want to do?"
"I need to be with him... until... until he wakes up."
If he wakes up.
"Is that where you were going to go? Vietnam? Look, Elise and Arthur have legal custody of you. I've seen the paperwork, and they're your legal guardians. I think that you need to try to accept your life where you are—for now—for just a few months. And I'll even try to help reach out to your dad. Figure something out. But we can't do that if you leave again."
I gently pressed the washcloth to my cheeks—they were covered with cuts and scratches, but the stinging helped take my mind away from the stinging in my heart.
I wasn't going to stay at the Academy.
Aaraeth startled me when she moved across my skin, down my chest, and around my waist.
"Dr. Weaver?"
Her eyes made their way from her phone back to me. She had moved and was sitting on the lid of the toilet next to the bath. "Yeah?"
"Can everyone see Aaraeth? Like, as she is?"
She pursed her lips. "She'll look like a tattoo to everyone else."
"Yeah, but can they see her moving?"
Shaking her head, she smiled. "Only Dragonborn. You know, I'm glad that you are one of us."
"What exactly is the Prime? Is Aaraeth the Prime, or am I?"
"You're considered a Prime, not Aaraeth. But people will refer to her as a Prime as well sometimes. It's not technically correct, but..." She moved back to kneel at the tub before pulling the washcloth out again and twisting it with her bony red fingers. "I should've given you more support from the beginning. I only have myself to blame for this mess."
She blew out a breath.
"I don't blame you," I whispered. "I don't know who to blame. I mean, if my dad is Dragonborn and knew all this... He couldn't have known. How could he?"
She shrugged and leaned forward to part my hair again around the cut in my head.
I winced. "Can you tell me about the bond?"
She nodded. "I believe your grandparents are bonded, Elise would probably be the best one to ask. But honestly, all I really know about Prime bonds is from history—stories."
"Like Pricilla and Henry?" I suggested, remembering a story from her class.
She nodded and eyed me cautiously. "That’s a very dark story."
I jumped as she touched my head wound.
"Hold still, I'm gluing the cut instead of stitches."
I clenched my hands into fists and hissed at the pain. "It seems like all the stories about Primes are rape and murder…"
Dr. Weaver leaned away from me, pursing her lips, her eyes on my head, "There are all kinds of myths surrounding bond mates. If all those myths were true, you and Ashe would've sealed your bond the night Aaraeth and Eondian mated. I'm not sure that I would've been able to stop it. But Ashe is a good man, and I think somewhere deep inside, he realizes that you are still a child..."
"I'm not a child."
She shrugged. "According to the law of both the United States, and the Dragonborn, you are. Even if you consented, it would be considered statutory rape. Ashe would go to jail."
"Poor Ashe. He must hate me," I mumbled, sinking down and flinching when I thought my head wound nearly touched the porcelain.
"Don't get your head wet again." She assessed me. "He doesn't hate you. He can't. The two of you experienced a dragon bond. Something that's supposed to be more compelling and overwhelming than anything I can imagine."
I sat up, water splashing the older woman. "I just wish things would go back to the way they were…" I pressed a hand to my breast bone.
"Do you really?" She asked.
I blew her question off. "I hurt all the time. I hate being this far away from him." I shook my head, unable to say the right words to get my point across.
"It's cruel, this bond. You certainly are young, but as your guardian, I must protect you."
"Well, how would anyone know if we completed the bond or not? What does it really matter to everyone else?" I pulled the plug, and the tub began to drain noisily again.
She let out a sardonic laugh, "Everyone would know. Our dragons can feel you and Ashe... the tension, the power. And other Primes would probably challenge him using the law. If not, your grandparents… I think they would want the final say, especially since he's Elibera."
"Why do you say it like that... Elibera?"
Dr. Weaver took my arm and helped me get out of the tub and sit on a towel that lay over the toilet lid.
She pressed another towel at me, and I held it to my chest to dry off. It smelled like detergent, clean and soft.
The professor had turned away from me and let out a thoughtful sigh. "Oh, the Elibera... how to describe it. Hmmm. Well, I'll start with your mother, Celine." When she turned around, I met her gaze.
"Well, I suppose I might as well tell you. Someone's bound to tell you eventually. Celine was bonded to a man who was also Elibera. They fought, and your mom left… disappeared. Your grandparents blamed him and then blamed him all the more when your mom died."
"But it was no one's fault. She had cancer," I told her, furrowing my brow.
Dr. Weaver squeezed her eyes closed.
She doesn't agree with you, she thinks your mother died another way, hissed Aaraeth.
"She died from cancer," I told the professor sternly—emotion clogging my throat.
When Dr. Weaver's eyes met mine, they were sad. "Let's get you dressed. I brought you some things from school. Then I have an idea to help you feel better."
Thoughts of my mother tormented me and kept me quiet as Taya and Dr. Weaver helped dress me into sweatpants and sweatshirt with the Balaur insignia.
Would Dr. Weaver even tell me what she knew if I asked her directly? IF my mother didn't die of cancer, what happened? Maybe the professor just didn't know the truth. After all, dad had been with her. I had been with her.
My mom had been a Prime. What had her dragon looked like? What had been her dragon's name? Did Dr. Weaver know all this?
17
Hobbling into the living room of the small house, I sat on the couch next to Ashe. He wrapped an arm around me before his expression went blank, remembering we had an audience.
Dr. Weaver knelt before us. "I think, Ashe, you can hold her for a moment, and maybe it will help her injuries. There's some lore that Prime bond-mates can heal each other." Turning to me, "Sydney, be careful with your head, I glued the cut together, but it will need stitches if that doesn't hold."
I didn't care about anyone in the room except Ashe. My eyes may have been on Dr. Weaver, but my mind was on my soldier.
That ache in my chest, that constant burning, stretching feeling was gone, replaced by warmth and contentment. Well, with underlying desire. But it was more than hunger, there was a serenity and relief I felt just being near him.
Wrapping my arms around his chest, Ashe nearly pulled me onto his lap, squeezing me back. He stroked my face and carefully brushed strands of wet hair away from my cheek.
Everyone else seemed to disappear, and as exhaustion and my injuries got the better of me, my eyelids fluttered closed. Content to be in the arms of my unbonded mate, I let go.
Ashe's lips pressed the top of my forehead before I drifted off.
Taya woke me by speaking only inches from my face. "Hey," she whispered. "Can I take a look at your head?"
The empty room was dark as the sun dipped low in the sky. Ashe still held me, protective and alert. A wave of emotion washed over me from him—determination. Duty. Honor. Fear—for me. Concern for my safety.
Frustration.
And then…
Something darker.
I couldn't meet his eyes after glimpsing his feelings like that. Those emotions were too raw, too vulnerable, too intimate.
At that moment, the gravity of the situation hit me.
Even though I knew that this had messed up Ashe's life, I hadn't really comprehended what that meant until this point. He'd studied, done the right thing, and planned it all out. Planned out who he wanted his wife to be.
Then…
Out of the blue, some ancient force takes a hammer to his carefully laid plans and throws me in his path, a reckless, uneducated... child, into his life.
And still, he'd done everything he could within the bounds of society to help me and look after me. Even going so far as to keep track of my dad.
And what had I done? I'd run away, fought him, been selfish, and he was still there… for me.
Tears welled in my eyes, and Taya stopped. "Am I hurting you? I'm sorry… I'm just moving the gauze."
Ashe's eyes, the color of the pale sky, darted to me and widened. His serious expression tried to tell me something, but I didn't understand.
"Dr. Weaver?" Taya called out, "It looks good."
The older woman helped me sit up, and she examined the back of my head before going still. "Yes, it actually looks better. Let's cover this up."
Taya nodded, and her light touch probed my scalp. "You can see this has already started healing, is that from the bond?"
"I think so," came Dr. Weaver's response. "I've read about this with full bonded Prime pairs—I mean, it's not staggering, but this definitely isn't normal healing."
I turned toward my professor. "What do you mean, normal healing?"
Taya's large eyes went wide. "We think that being together has made you heal a lot quicker."
The older woman nodded. "Do you remember some of our histories? It's full of Prime bonded pairs healing each other. I thought it was a myth, but now I've seen it myself—and you aren't even fully bonded."
Taya bent around to meet my eye and helped me sit up all the way next to Ashe.
Shaking her head, Dr. Weaver probed my ankle, and I yelled out, "That still hurts."
"The swelling has definitely gone down, though," she told us.
Everyone in the room stared at me, including Ashe. I looked back at him, uneasy about all the attention.
My soldier skimmed my cheek with his fingers in a gentle caress.
Stupid bond!
In all honesty, Ashe was this amazingly hot guy before all this, and I was a horny teenager. But to add the bond and complex emotions on top was almost too much.
As if Ashe knew what I was thinking, he winked at me teasingly. He'd done it in a way so that no one else had seen his saucy gesture.
I pursed my lips and raised my brow even as Taya probed my ankle.
"Does that hurt?"
I nodded.
"That?"
"Yes!"
"That?"
"No."
Tearing my gaze from Ashe, over to Taya, I watched the young female soldier. She breathed out a laugh, "Dr. Weaver? We should document her healing."
Dr. Weaver cut her off and patted her bag. "I have it in my notes. I plan to take pictures if she’s injured again."
The other man, the one with the giant Drake dragon, who had corralled Aaraeth and me in the sky, stopped pacing the room. "Let's move out then. The girl's found and safe. Carrick, we've given you more than enough time to see her."
The other man... Durand… Durand Lambert, answered his dragon.
Durand was a Prime.
And we were related.
I turned my attention to him for the first time.
"Oh!" I laughed and covered my mouth. "Durand, how are we related?"
His eyes narrowed. "Celine was my sister."
I sat motionless as a shiver ran down my spine.
"I didn't know about you," my voice came out quiet and seemingly far away.
Durand had close-cropped dark hair and hazel green eyes. He was a little taller than Ashe's six feet with the build of a man who lifted weights regularly.
Our dragons were talking to each other and had been. However, I'd been unaware, my focus had been on my would-be mate.
The older man stood there, arms crossed, the sleeves of his black militia uniform rolled up.
"I never meant to cause this much trouble. I just need to check on my dad…" I explained, shaking my head, "He's all alone."
Durand frowned. "He's also the same man who's kept you away from us. Do you know how much pain that's caused my parents? My mother? I haven't even told her about you trying to run away, it would break her heart. That man you're trying to see has caused incalculable damage to not only you and our family but also the Dragonborn. Can you understand that?"
Standing, I took a step toward my uncle, my arms extended. "He's… my dad."
"As far as I'm concerned, he's a terrorist. He lured Celine away, led her to her death, and has hidden you for over fifteen years. Then I find out that he didn't even bother to put you in school, he just toted you around like an object." He shook his head, incredulously. "And all this time, you were a Prime."
"I... it's not
like that," I pleaded with his cold tone.
A breath whooshed out from him incredulously. "Don't you get it? George Miller is not your dad."
I gazed between Ashe, who's eyes were wide, and Durand.
I should've known better than to trust these people. "No. No. I don't believe you. It's not true."
Durand stood there, eyes piercing my own. "He can't be your dad. It's not possible. We've been trying to track him down for years. Celine would never be with George. He wasn't her type, and he definitely isn't a Prime. Think. It's not too hard to figure out that one. Two plus two equals four, not three, not five. Do the math. You aren't even related to that man, and we’ll make sure that you never see him again. He's a kidnapper and a murderer."
I stumbled backward until I fell into the couch, Ashe's arms drawing me in next to him.
When I turned to meet his eye, Ashe gazed at me steadily.
Anger and horror washed over me, and I scrambled back up to my feet. "It's not true. I don't believe you."
Durand's eyes were still lasered on me "I'm sorry, but everything he's claimed to be is a lie."
My stomach clenched. Was this true? Was this all true?
No! This couldn't possibly be true.
"She's gonna barf," Taya called out, before rubbing my arms.
I glanced up at Durand, my uncle, and he just gazed down at me, arms folded, face set.
"It's okay. Head between your knees. There you go," Taya instructed while rubbing my back.
Aaraeth? Is this... could this be true? I took in deep breaths to try to calm myself.
Aaraeth hesitated, Durand believes it.
"What?" I asked aloud.
My dragon moved around my skin as she did when something upset her.
"Tell me. Is it true?" I demanded from my dragon but got three responses.
"Yes," replied my uncle.
"I think so," came Ashe's response.
Durand believes it is true, Aaraeth repeated.
Something broke inside me and the tears streamed down my face. Sobs wracked my body, leaving me emotionally broken and sore.
Ashe's strong hands grabbed me by the waist and pulled me onto his lap, throwing a blanket around us.
"Sydney? We don't know for sure," my unbonded mate whispered. "They don't know. The only person who really knows is your dad."
Cracked Open: The Dragon Born Academy Page 15