The Calupso potion.
Her speaking to her dad inside the ring.
I gasped.
King Albert.
The queen was her mother. Not Tanya like I’d thought.
I remembered Tanya’s daughter. I always knew the time frame was wrong.
Tanya’s daughter’s name was Cara. Elena was too young to be that dragon.
Elena must have Ascended when I unleashed my fire on her in the ring.
I felt only darkness and hatred toward her.
But now Elena was my rider. How the fuck had she ended up in that ring with me?
Professor Pheizer must have had something to do with this.
Elena might have tamed me, but I would never be hers.
If she thought this fight was over, she was making a huge mistake.
Sooner or later, I would be free.
I was nobody’s toy.
I didn’t care how she had claimed me, whether it had been fair or not, I was the fucking Rubicon. I was nobody’s pet.
I growled.
“Blake,” my mother said from beside me.
“How could you? I thought you loved me,” I hissed, putting all the hatred I felt for Elena into my voice.
“Stop that. It is for your own good. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because I’m nobody’s slave.”
“She is King Albert’s daughter! Your father’s rider’s child, Blake. Do you know what he sacrificed that night to raise you? You are so ungrateful.”
“Ungrateful?” Tears filled my eyes.
Disappointment was etched on her face. “You knew all this time. Lucian died, Blake! How many more were you willing to sacrifice to keep your secret?”
“Everyone!” A heavy breath left my nostrils. “I’m nobody’s slave, not even that little bitch’s.”
My mother slapped me, and my cheek stung from the strike. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you insult the princess of Paegeia.” With one last disappointed look, she stormed away.
Rage coursed through me, heating my blood, and I struggled to calm myself.
I tried to shift, but nothing happened. I screamed in frustration, shaking the bed frame.
My entire body ached, and my ribs seared with pain with every breath I took.
Why wasn’t I healing?
Those abilities don’t belong to you, Elena’s voice screamed inside my head. They are mine.
I groaned.
Constance came into my view.
“A few hours. You deserve weeks.” She gave me a shot, and though I fought hard against it, I passed out.
When I woke up, my body felt much stronger than it had before.
I could feel the shift, but I pulled it back.
Everything came rushing back including my hatred. My mother was wrong. It wasn’t my fault that Lucian had died. It was Elena’s.
I lifted my head and spotted Elena lying in the bed diagonally across from mine.
There was no one around. I laughed as I got up.
I wasn’t anybody’s slave, least of all hers.
I grabbed a pillow, intent on suffocating her, but the pillow wouldn’t go near her head. A force pushed back from her.
Who was doing this?
I pressed down with my strength, but whatever was protecting her was stronger than me.
It sent me flying through the air and crashing against the wall.
Footsteps rushed toward me, and I quickly stumbled to my feet as Constance approached.
Constance looked down at me, then back at Elena. Her gaze drifted to the pillow on the floor.
“What were you trying—”
I ran to the nearest window and shifted as I jumped into the sky.
I didn’t look back as I flew as fast as I could.
I didn’t know where I was going or even if I would return. Perhaps I should just kill myself.
Killing myself didn’t work. I healed too fast to inflict death upon myself, and the invisible force saved me no matter what I tried.
I refused to become like George. I wasn’t going to lose myself and fall under the spell they used to control us.
Not me. I was the Rubicon.
Each day, more and more memories returned. I remembered what a wreck I had been after Lucian died and Elena turned into a Thunderlight. How I’d felt like all hope had vanished. How confused I was. Except, I hadn’t been wrong. The events had just made it seem like I was.
I pushed myself to try and remember everything, but so much was blank. All I felt was darkness. And then I had woken up in the Coliseum, and it was over.
I wished I could go to Irene—I missed her—but I knew there was no way I could rekindle our relationship now that everyone knew the truth about Elena.
Fucking Elena. I didn’t love her. I would never love her.
She was going to set me free. Even if it was the last thing she did.
I’d been living in the Acker woods for the past two months, ever since I’d ran from the infirmary.
The people who took those who disappeared in the Acker woods had come to me when I’d first arrived, but they’d taken one look at me and left me alone.
How was it possible that everyone was so afraid of me, yet I hadn’t had the power to kill Elena that night?
I couldn’t shake my anger, no matter what I did.
I needed human contact.
My mother would never let me go back home. Not after all the lies and deceit.
There was only one place I might be welcome now.
Isaac’s.
I reached his place late at night, hoping he would let me in.
His eyes widened when he opened the door and saw me standing on the porch. “Where the fuck have you been, dude?” He stepped aside so I could enter, and I nodded my thanks, but I didn’t answer his question.
“Blake.”
“Don’t badger me. You know it’s not in me to yield, Isaac.”
He frowned, puzzled. “You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?”
“Elena’s not your rider. The Ancients don’t believe she’s the daughter of King Albert and Queen Catherine. King Caleb told them that she was a dragon and that was how she claimed you.”
I snorted. “They believed him?”
“Of course they did. That idiot claimed you for Arianna.”
“What?” That was fucking outrageous. Arianna was a weakling.
“Relax. You’re the Rubicon. It doesn’t work like that.” Silence lingered between us. He looked at the ground.
There was something he wasn’t telling me.
“Elena… She saved your father’s life, dude. She can’t be that bad.” He told me everything that happened, and how the Ancients wanted to kill them for it.
I huffed. “They all turned their backs on me.”
“Still, now you are free for some other idiot to try and claim you.”
He didn’t ask why I was lying.
“You need a shower and I’m sure you are hungry.”
Gratitude filled me. I could always count on Isaac.
I stood in the shower, letting the water wash over me, wash away my worries. When I was clean, Isaac had a large plate of food waiting for me in the kitchen.
I wolfed down the food, then crashed on the floor in his room, drifting into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning, Missy was hovering over me as I woke up.
I grunted a greeting.
“So it’s true. You did turn dark?” she asked.
I sighed. “Missy, I don’t have time for this.”
She gave me a no-nonsense look. “Blake, they’re saying she’s the Princess of Paegeia.”
“It’s a lie. She was a dragon. That’s how she claimed me.”
“A dragon? I don’t believe you.” Missy shook her head in disbelief. “Lucian died. That’s on you.” She stormed out the room, giving me a disgusted glance over her shoulder.
Good riddance.
I stayed at Isaac’s for a few months.
Yuri wasn’t happy about my choices, because he also believed Elena was the princess, but he let me stay because he believed what King Albert had believed—with good influence I might find the light again.
They were a bunch of fruit cakes.
“Don’t you want to call your mom and tell her where you are?” Isaac asked.
“What don’t you understand?” I strummed his guitar. “They don’t want anything to do with me.” I had the good melody going, just not the right words.
He smiled sadly. “She’s still your mother, Blake. I’m sure she is worried sick about you.”
“She’s not.”
Missy called Isaac, her tone frantic and he quickly rushed out. He paused at the door and looked back at me. “You coming?”
I shrugged. He was a fucking giant eagle. He didn’t need me.
He shook his head as he headed downstairs.
I strummed the guitar again, tuning it.
Here I was, practically free. Why didn’t I feel that way?
“Blake!” Isaac yelled from downstairs. His footsteps pounded up the stairs a few seconds later. “You are not going to like this,” he said as he entered the room.
I raised an eyebrow and he handed me a newspaper.
The headline on the front page announced that Elena could prove she was the princess.
“You know what this means, right?”
“You said the Ancients—”
“They always come with a but, dude.”
I roared.
Isaac held up his hand defensively. “If she can prove she is the princess, she gets her title and her dragon back.”
I snarled.
“That explains it. Really?”
“What don’t you understand? I’m the fucking Rubicon.”
“Who needs a rider otherwise you go dark,” he said.
“I’m already dark if you haven’t noticed.”
He scoffed. “No, you’re not. You’re stuck.”
I glared at him.
“It’s this or it’s her, Blake.”
“Then I choose this. I’ll die before I become her property.”
“What is it with you and fucking property? She is a fucking human. Not a piece of gold.”
He got up and left and I grabbed the paper.
King Albert had a secret vault below the theme park.
The vampire tree was the entrance and Elena’s blood would prove she was the princess.
I was screwed.
I chucked the newspaper against the wall as my mind raced.
Maybe I wasn’t screwed.
The vault had to be almost eighteen years old.
Maybe it would never open.
There was still hope.
I picked up the newspaper and found the date. I had to know if that vault was going to open or not.
They made a huge fuss in the newspapers about the vault. Luckily, Yuri didn’t own a television. They didn’t believe in technology. They focused more or inner human strength and relationships.
It was why Isaac was such a great friend, always eager to listen to my problems and assist with my darkness, even when it meant trying to tear off my band members’ heads.
The shifters were all good creatures.
“My dad is going to get a TV to watch the opening of the vault.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Blake, how can you be so cold about all this? This will be good for you.”
“It’s not good, Isaac!” I sighed. “Am I really the only one who sees what being a Dent means?” I ran a hand through my hair.
“Dude, you need a rider to move on, to become better, to get healthy again.”
“No, I don’t. You said I’m stuck, and I can handle that. I want freedom, Isaac. I don’t want to be enslaved.”
“The darkness is enslavement, Blake,” Isaac hissed.
“I’m still me with the darkness,” I said.
Isaac narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you getting at?”
“The Dent. It isn’t this beautiful thing that everyone makes it out to be. You really think I don’t want to be good? You got it wrong. I’ve spent my entire life fighting against the darkness. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. But I’m not going to become someone I don’t even know. That is what the Dent is. George doesn’t even know what he went through. He was out for a day. He hated Becky before the Dent. He couldn’t even think of touching her. And now, he can’t live without her? She is like the air he breathes, his food, his water, without her he will die. And he would take his own life if it meant saving hers. All she has to do is ask. What she says goes. Does that sounds like freedom to you?”
Isaac looked down, scuffing his foot over the floor. “Blake, there have been many bonds with our shifters where they feel like that about each other.”
I hit my fist against my forehead. Why couldn’t he get it? “Those bonds are formed through years and years of knowing that person, Isaac. Not in a day. I would love to have that, but I don’t want to be forced the way George is being forced.”
“Who says he is forced, Blake?”
“Because he isn’t the same, Isaac. I’ve seen it. George is a completely different dragon now. They can’t tame Chromatics, we are dark. The only thing that keeps the darkness away are the beatings, and we are hunted down when it doesn’t work.”
Isaac gave a slight shake of his head. “I don’t believe that. Your father had a great bond with King Albert, and Emanuel has one with King Helmut.”
“And those bonds were formed through years and years of darkness and beatings!”
Isaac blew out a frustrated breath, but he didn’t say anything.
“Those weren’t Dents, Isaac. I’ll take the beatings if I have to, but I’m not going down like that. The Dent is a spell that sedates who we are so they can control us.” Tears stung my eyes. “I will never know what real love is, never make a decision for myself. I’ll always have to do what she says. I’m the Rubicon, Isaac. The Alpha of all the dragons. But I will be nothing if I become her slave. Do you understand why I don’t want this?”
He stared at me, lips pursed as he took in my words. Finally, he nodded. “The way you explain it, the change, the strength of the bond, I believe it is some sort of magic. I refuse to believe that something as beautiful as the Dent is that, but I see your point. A bond that strong needs magic, or some part of it does. I’m just scared that it’s not entirely what you think.”
“It takes months for people to fall in love and years for them to truly love one another before a bond that strong can be formed. Yes, we are dragons. We experience everything tenfold. But I don’t know Elena. Whatever they want people to believe the Dent is, it’s not good, Isaac. I feel it in my entire being.”
“What if it is the darkness that wants you to believe that, Blake?”
“It’s not. I don’t admit when I’m wrong, but I know it when it happens. I’m not wrong.”
I wiped away a tear that rolled down my cheek.
Isaac inhaled deeply. “Okay. I’ll go with your version. You do fucked up things, but you’re rarely wrong. If you say the Dent is a spell, then I will try to look at it that way.”
“Thank you. It’s good to finally have one friend in my corner.”
He smiled. “I’ve always been in your corner, Blake. Always. And I’m not going anywhere.”
The day of the vault opening finally arrived. I leaned against the doorframe and watched the TV screen intently.
Almost the entire village had come to Isaac’s to watch it.
A reporter was speaking, but I wasn’t listening to what he was saying. Instead, I watched the statistics on the screen. It seemed not many people believed she was the princess.
The reporter spoke to a couple of bystanders in the vast crowd. Many were angry that she was claiming to be someone she wasn’t.
The reporter turned to King Caleb.
He seemed livid, trying in vain to control the emotion in his tone. “The world w
ill see once and for all what a fraud she truly is.”
“But she claimed the Rubicon.”
“Because of what she truly is. Deep down inside of her she is still a dragon. She’s just trying to hide it. She will show herself to us again. Mark my words. Elena isn’t King Albert and Queen Catherine’s daughter. That vault will not open, and when that happens, Arianna, the only princess of Paegeia, will claim her dragon.”
The reporter turned back to the camera as King Caleb stalked off.
“There you have it from the King of Areeth’s mouth.”
An advertisement came up, and the shifters murmured among themselves.
Yuri caught my eyes, and I quickly shifted my gaze to the carpet.
He wanted me to tell them the truth. That they didn’t need the vault to open. That a dragon always knows. That I had known from the start who she was.
I didn’t. A part of me knew but King Caleb was right, Elena was a dragon.
Yuri start flipping through the channels to see if there was more on the story. He found a channel that showed what was going at the theme park. The reporter spoke to the people there.
She had more support there. Some were confused and said they would only start paying attention once the vault opened, but other than that, it was just a normal day in Paegeia for them.
Every news station was covering the event.
They were calling it a big day in the history of Paegeia, whether the vault opened or not. If the vault opened, then it would go down as the day that Paegeia once again had hope. If it didn’t open, it would go down as one of the craziest things a human had done to get attention.
I wished for the latter with all my heart, because then they would tear her apart and forget about the Rubicon completely.
The camera panned over the front, where history would be made.
I saw my father arriving first, Elena following close behind.
Mixed emotions came from the crowd. Some screamed profanity, others called for her to stay strong.
My father seemed to be acting as her protector. He seemed so different, like he had purpose again.
That would die when the vault didn’t open.
Then it hit me.
The vault didn’t have to open. I could stop it from opening.
Darkbeam Part II Page 27