Starlight

by Adrienne Woods

  “That was different.” I looked around and realized that Arianna wasn’t even around anymore. “Where the hell is she anyway?”

  “Who, Arianna?”

  I nodded.

  “King Caleb lost his trust in the school. She has tutors now at the castle. I actually feel sorry for her. She misses this place.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “I thought you weren’t the jealous type.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “Fine, don’t tell me.”

  He laughed. “She texts me now and then asking what is new, how you are doing and so on.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “How I’m doing?”

  “She’s not that bad, Elena.”

  “Okay, if you say so.”

  “For all we know you two could’ve been really good friends if you’d grown up this side.”

  I laughed. “I really doubt that.”

  “You do. You would’ve been completely different Elena. Your mom and dad are royalty, and they would only have had one daughter, who they had wanted for a long, long time. So you would’ve actually been a spoiled brat.”

  I laughed. “Still, I wouldn’t have been friends with her.”

  “Never say never, Elena.”

  “What if doesn’t exist, Blake?”

  “Ah-huh,” he said and drank his soda as he stared at me with friendly eyes. “So you find anything?”

  “It was rearranging maps today, and I can promise you they don’t have any missing ingredients hiding between their coordinates.”

  “We’ll find something, I’m sure of it.”

  “We better find something.”

  “Just stay positive. It will come to us.”

  I smiled and ate my supper. I really didn’t want to talk about this anymore. It was too depressing to think about the consequences if we didn’t find the missing ingredient.

  We trained again that night until half past nine and he called it a night when I started struggling to keep my eyes open.

  Blake walked with me to the stairs with his arm around my neck.

  “So when are you going to teach me how to head-butt?”

  He laughed. “We can try it tomorrow night, if you want.”

  “There is really a technique?”

  “Oh, yes. Like I said, if you do it wrong, you can end up with a mother of a headache. So, I’d better teach you how to walk away from the fight with no damage.”

  I laughed as we reached the stairs. He pulled me in for a hug. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I doubt I’ll be awake, but okay,” I said.

  “Then if I don’t see you, sleep tight.” He kissed me softly on my lips before we parted ways.

  I watched him run up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory and slowly climbed ours.

  I understood why it was so hard for Tabitha to let him go, especially now, and it scared me that she was not giving up on him. I meant every word when I told him that smart and stubborn was a dangerous quality. I’d forgotten to mention the third: beautiful.

  I just hoped that the Dent was as strong as everyone said it was, otherwise I might end up being the one that had to let him go at the end.

  THE NEXT TWO weeks flew by.

  By the end of week one, I’d found a couple of exotic plants and seeds that could be used for a tranquilizing potion.

  The restricted section had really scary potions but none of them helped with destroying something as evil as the Saadedine, or could slow down something that was conjured.

  That really scared me as I doubted now that any of the plants and seeds we found would do anything.

  I struggled with the fact that it was the Elemental babies we’d helped enter this world that had become this evil I had to kill now.

  It wasn’t fair.

  They had names. How do you kill something that was once held so dearly?

  Goran was behind all the evil and disappointment in my life.

  He was to blame for everything that I’d lost.

  I mean, if it hadn’t been for him, Cara would’ve never had to give up her existence to save me, but then I would’ve died, so maybe she didn’t have a chance from the beginning.

  Still, Brian would’ve been here, and Lucian would’ve never gone on that quest to find a way to save Blake and discovered the truth.

  I would’ve grown up a princess with a mom and a dad—my real mom and dad.

  Blake would’ve never been this dark, he would’ve always had hope. Annie would’ve never lost her dragon form.

  Constance would still have her husband.

  And Herbert and Tanya would still be alive.

  Everything dark in my life was because of one man. Goran.

  I agreed with the conversation at the lodge the other night. If we could do one thing over, I would kill Goran myself and spare this world so much pain, so much loss.

  Blake was right; I would’ve been a completely different person.

  Another change in plans came around the end of week one.

  Master Longwei called Blake in alone and when he came back, I could see the anger on his face.

  “Okay, what happened?” I asked and rubbed his back as he plunged onto the pillow next to me.

  “You are getting a guard,” he simply said.

  “What?”

  “He doesn’t like me sleeping in your room, and…”

  George’s face fell. “You’re shitting me, right?”

  “Nope, so I guess your sneaking days are over, Georgie boy.”

  Becky laughed the hardest as we all saw the disappointment on George’s face.

  “Okay, that is just…”

  “Bullshit. That’s what I said too and he made it clear to me that my arrangement was only temporary. His exact words were that he was the principal and no Dent was going to break the rules.”

  “He said that?”

  “Yeah. He’s seriously pissing me off because he has no idea what danger he is putting you in.”

  “Who is the guard?”

  “It’s Raymond.”

  “Raymond.” I smiled but it disappeared fast.

  “What is it?”

  “Paul,” I said with a sigh. “He could be in any form, Blake.”

  “I’ve known Raymond a long time, Elena. I can promise you that it’s not Paul. Emanual trusts him with his life, so do I.”

  “Still, Dicky was killed at the palace.”

  “I know.”

  “It could be one of them.”

  “I know.”

  “And we all know what Paul can do.”

  “I know, Elena. Emanual checked all of them out. Dicky must have found something, and that was what got him killed.”

  “You think he knew who Paul’s new figure was?”

  “Yeah, no doubt. He just didn’t know how good Paul was.”

  His face still held a pissed off look.

  “Then why do you still look pissed off?”

  Becky laughed.

  “Because now he has no excuse for sleeping in our room,” Sammy said. “Good riddance anyway.”

  I still smiled as I thought about that one. I was glad that it was Raymond that they’d signed on as my guard, as he followed me everywhere I went. He even helped me research after I told him what it was I looked for.

  Another good thing that happened was that a couple of dragons from the other side came back. I was really surprised to know that a couple of them were born on that side, had never set foot in Paegeia, and that they were actually Chromatic.

  Guess my father was right that dragon was dragon, no matter what breed. It was the way they were brought up, the influence that surrounded them that made the difference.

  King Helmut and King Caleb were going to house them until the war, and we were going to meet them soon when we started our campaign.

  I was getting better at fighting dirty too.

  The head-butting lessons weren’t so great, and my head ached for a couple of minutes until Blake healed it.

  He,
on the other hand, had to heal from the inside, which wasn’t as fast a process as he thought it would be. But I could say with confidence that it was something I’d mastered real fast.

  The second week was slightly harder.

  He refused to give up on me wielding my abilities. And it got so tough on him that he started resenting me for it.

  Something I never thought would happen.

  We used to train every night until half past nine, now we would start at seven and finish at eight.

  He never said that he blamed me, but I could tell he did by his short temper that kept on making its appearance.

  He really made me feel as if I was the one to blame, that I didn’t want my abilities badly enough, but he never said so.

  I sighed as I put the last book back on the shelf.

  Our detention was finally over and Thea, the librarian, actually had a small gift for me when I walked over to the desk.

  “What is this?” I asked as Raymond was busy taking out a book, one that he wanted to read later on during his watch.

  I saw a curled up plant inside a pot in her hand. It was in a cute flower pot and looked really sweet.

  “I call him Louie, and Louie needs plenty of sunlight, and water once every few days, not too much though. Just a small thank you for helping me these past two weeks.”

  “Thea, a plant?”

  “It’s not just any plant, Elena. It’s a hibicurus. Something really special this side.”

  “Wait,” Raymond said. “I know this plant. Where did you get it?”

  Thea smiled. “I have my sources,” she flirted.

  “Okay, what is so special about Louie?”

  “Watch and see.”

  She put the pot down on the counter and picked up a feather. She stroked it softly and the plant opened like a human stretching. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.

  “This isn’t it. What is special about Louie is he carries small fruit, an extremely rare berry-like fruit, called Luke berries, which is deadly poisonous, so don’t eat it, please.”

  “Poisonous, as in how?”

  “Oh they used Luke berries for all sorts of things.” Raymond couldn’t stop looking at him. “Your father actually used to dip some of his archers’ arrow tips into the sap. You go into a deep sleep and then you die.”

  “How long does it take to go into this deep sleep?”

  “They say on the spot?” A huge grin formed on his face. “It can take anything down.”

  “You think…”

  “Oh, Elena I don’t think. I know.”

  I grabbed Thea around her neck as she’d just presented me with the missing ingredient that was going to help killing this bastard.

  She obviously had no idea what the two of us were talking about, and Raymond put the book back on the shelf.

  Blake was going to be over the moon.

  “Thank you Thea,” I said with tears in my eyes. “You have no idea what this means to me.”

  “Really,” she smiled. “Elena,” she hugged me too. “Please just be careful of the fruit. Ask Blake to burn it, okay?”

  I nodded.

  “When does it bear fruit?”

  “About six to eight weeks.”

  I smiled again. “It’s perfect. Thanks.”

  I grabbed Louie and ran to the cafeteria as Raymond went to go to speak to Master Longwei.

  I paused when I found Tabitha sitting with Blake again, laughing this time.

  I wasn’t the jealous type, I didn’t think, but with all the stuff that had happened lately, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

  It was exactly what I’d warned him about and he’d laughed it off.

  I sighed and went up to my room to put Louie on the windowsill where he would get plenty of sunlight.

  I stoked him softly and he opened up. It was really the most amazing thing anybody had ever given me.

  I’d tell Blake about him later.

  I went back to the cafeteria to grab something to eat and was relieved when Tabitha’s place was occupied with my friends.

  I went outside and sat next to Becky as Sammy and Dean took the seats next to Blake.

  “Our two weeks are finally over,” Blake sang and I smiled.

  “It is,” I said and wanted to tell him so badly about Louie but decided to leave it for later as George and Dean still didn’t know about the omen hanging over us.

  “So, you guys ready for this fundraiser?” Becky asked as I dug in.

  I raised my lip. I’d forgotten all about our big night at the museum to raise money for those we had saved from Etan.

  “Please tell me that you at least sorted out your dress.”

  “I’ll buy one. No big deal.”

  “You seriously are not using your princess perks.”

  “I can’t wait to meet all the new dragons,” Sammy said. “At least you are excited about that right?”

  “That I am.”

  “Excellent. How many?” She looked at her brother.

  “Emanual told me there are about fifteen of them now.”

  “Fifteen, that’s it?” I sounded concerned. We are going to need more if we are going to beat Goran and all his Wyverns.”

  “More will come, Elena. Just be patient.”

  “Oh, I know.”

  I finished and at seven Blake and I left for the Parthenon Dome.

  “Why are you so quiet?”

  “I’m just tired, and to be honest, I’m not looking forward to tonight.”

  “You don’t want to spend more time with me?”

  “No, I don’t want to spend time with you losing your temper, Blake.”

  “Elena, I’m not mad at you.”

  “It feels like you are.”

  “I’m sorry.” He pulled me back. “It’s just hard that we haven’t mastered this.”

  “Not everything can be mastered in two days Blake.”

  “I know. I’m not good when it comes to waiting, Elena.”

  “I know.”

  “Sorry if I made you feel like it’s your fault. I know I’m a jerk at times.”

  “Tiny bit.” I showed him with my fingers and he smiled.

  “You are too kind. I don’t deserve that.”

  I smiled.

  He opened the Parthenon Dome for me and I entered first.

  “Do we really have to do this, tonight?”

  “Yes, Elena. We have to do this tonight.” He had a smile in his tone. “Just think how awesome it will be if we can do it and no harm comes to any of us.”

  “Any of us meaning you?” I asked and he chuckled.

  “Busted.”

  “Okay, now clear your mind.”

  I knew the drill and did it. One thing I had to admit: the more we actually did this, the easier the steps became, but the results always ended up the same.

  Blake fell on his knees the minute I actually felt it, but there was nothing on my palm. He grunted and I stopped the second I saw the pain reflecting off his face.

  “Why did you stop?” he spoke through heaves.

  “For the millionth time, I’m not going…”

  “Elena, you have no choice. Again, and push through this time. Don’t stop,” he said through clenched teeth.

  I took a huge breath.

  It carried on like that for the next hour and then, when his watch beeped, I knew it was time to say goodnight.

  “I’m not going to apologize for pushing you. We need to get this right, Elena.”

  I nodded.

  “See you tomorrow,” he said, kissing me quickly on my head as we parted ways.

  I couldn’t help but feel like something was off and Tabitha jumped into my mind again.

  I sat on the second set of stairs that reached to the upper level.

  They had been laughing today. He wasn’t fighting with her anymore.

  She was reeling him in and he was too stupid to notice that.

  Stop it, Elena. Blake is smarter than that. Maybe it’s another tactic he is
trying on her. To make her see that he isn’t under a spell.

  I heard the main door creaking and I got up softly.

  “We need to hurry,” Blake said and then it was quiet.

  I ran down the steps as the main door closed behind him and opened the door, but whomever he’d spoken to was long gone.

  What was he up to and why hadn’t he mentioned any of this?

  This was the reason he left every night at eight. An entire week, this had been going on for an entire week! I didn’t like this.

  I walked back to the room and found Raymond watching TV with George and Becky.

  My face said it all and Becky just stared at me.

  I shook my head and gave her an awkward smile. I was dying to ask George if he knew about Blake’s nightly strolls and what was so important it was cutting our practicing short. But I didn’t.

  Around nine Raymond and George left.

  I had to admit, now that George couldn’t sneak in it made their departure so much more difficult to watch.

  Whatever it was that made it so difficulty for George to leave Becky at night, well, it was something Blake still had to develop.

  I lay in bed that night, just thinking about many things. I’d ask him tomorrow straight, or try and see what it was he had to say.

  Maybe it was nothing. He had said they had to be fast, so maybe he was helping a friend in need, for all I knew, and then I would sound like a jealous girlfriend. But if it was that innocent, why wasn’t he telling me about it?

  Sammy finally entered around ten.

  She tiptoed to our bathroom and closed the door. Where the hell she and Dean had been, well, I just hoped and prayed that Master Longwei wouldn’t catch them.

  I still hadn’t even told Blake about Louie.

  I would tell him tomorrow.

  THE NEXT MORNING I found Blake with George and Dean at a table.

  “Please, Dean,” Blake begged.

  “I told you I won’t.”

  He nodded.

  Won’t what?

  Becky and I reached them and I had to admit, something was really not right at all.

  Sammy was in a bad mood this morning, and wasn’t even speaking to us, and now hearing Dean say that after Blake begged him, I started to wonder again if it was something that had to do with last night.

  Did Sammy and Dean know something?

  “Morning sunshine,” Blake said and I smiled.