Frostbite (The Dragonian Series Book 3) (12 page)

“Elena, it’s just a claim.”

Becky slumped down onto the pillow next to me.

“What if she succeeds?”

Both of them stared at me with raised eyebrows.

“Worse, what if I end up killing her. I don’t have full control of my dragon.”

“Now that’s what’s supposed to come out of your mouth. Besides, she deserves to get her ass kicked Elena,” Becky said.

“I can’t end up killing Lucian’s cousin, Becky.”

“She should’ve never asked for this.”

“How on earth did they even give permission for her to face Elena in the ring?” Sammy sounded as if she couldn’t believe it herself.

“Daddy has plenty of money,” Becky offered, and jumped up as George reached our table. She gave him a long kiss before he sat down on the pillow next to her.

“Thursday.” George had this huge grin with both thumbs up.

“Your timing sucks,” Becky snapped at him and he dropped the thumbs and his smile vanished. “You’re not scared, are you? It’s Nicole we’re talking about here.”

“She’s had trainers, George.”

“Still, Elena. You’re a freaking Rubicon.”

I ignored his over confident comments. “I can’t become her dragon. She’s like Arianna, even worse.”

“You won’t. George is right. You have a shit load of abilities. She doesn’t stand a chance, Elena,” Sammy said.

“Maybe you should stop seeing Blake for a couple of days,” Becky said. George just gave her the ‘huh?’ look.

“Are you insane?” I grunted at her through clenched teeth and looked at George. She rolled her eyes.

I couldn’t do that. I would go dark and that girl would die. I wasn’t going to kill Lucian’s cousin.

“Just a suggestion.”

“No.” I took a huge breath and pulled out my ponytail. I was used to the rainbow fringe and didn’t stare at it the way I used to anymore. “I will have to be calm and not give in. She can’t possibly be that good yet.”

“Don’t underestimate her trainers.”

“Seriously,” Sammy said and gave Becky the look. “Make up your mind if you’re going to help. You just told her that she has nothing to worry about.”

“I’m just saying.”

“So what do you say, give up, let that horrible girl become my Dragonian?”

“Elena, she’s not going to become your rider. She doesn’t have what it takes to claim you. I’m sure my brother will have some sort of plan.”

I nodded.

“What is this about Elena not seeing Blake?” George still wanted to know.

“Eat your food,” Becky snapped at him.

LASS WAS DIFFICULT because I couldn’t stop thinking about Thursday. I hated every minute of it. Two o’clock couldn’t come soon enough and when Blake landed on the mountain I just started to explode.

“How could she do that? How did they even let her?” My back was turned to him and my hands went up in every direction. I was so furious but with him being close to me, the feeling disappeared faster than it appeared. “I don’t understand. I can’t face her, I’m not ready.”

Blake grabbed both my arms and for a minute I really thought he was going to kiss me to make me stop ranting, but he just stared at me. “Stop freaking out.”

His peacock-blues took the heaviness from my chest and I could breathe again.

“The ring isn’t your enemy, it’s theirs.”

“I don’t know how to do this.”

“Then I suggest we get started.”

For the next four days Blake drilled me. The minute I brought Cara out and told her what was going to take place, she wasn’t happy.

Spending time with Blake’s human form while I was in my dragon form was fun, but not easy as he would bring both of us back to reality on an hourly basis.

“Elena, your biggest asset is changing the ring into what you want Nicole to see.”

“
Hell
,” Cara said and I laughed.

“What is the worst place you’ve ever imagined?” I asked Blake.

“I once imagined a place filled with scorpions, snakes and spiders when Arianna tried to claim me. Let’s just say it was over before we even started.”

“Would I see the same as she does?”

“Elena you control it, you have to imagine it, otherwise she won’t see it.”

“So, yes.”

He chuckled.

“You scared of spiders, Sugar
?”

“Spiders and scorpions are so not going to work.”

“
Bummer,”
Cara replied.

“Even if it’s Nicole’s worst fear?” Blake asked.

“I don’t even know what her fear is.”

“If you ask me super nicely, I can find out for you.”

“Will you?”

He chuckled. “Just don’t believe the rumors you hear.”

“I like him more and more.”

“Easy tiger,” I snapped at Cara.

“What?” Blake asked.

“Nothing, I wasn’t talking to you,” I snapped back.

“Let’s practice. Imagine a volcano and that everything around you is covered with lava.”

I sighed and closed my eyes.

I took the picture in front of me and imagined the mountains as a volcano. Lava ran down from the top and into huge rivers of red and orange liquid fire.

“Amazing.” I opened my eyes and found myself on the same spot, but the view wasn’t breathtaking anymore.

“Put a bit of heat Elena, to make it more real.”

“Leave that to me, Sugar,”
Cara said and the air became dry in one second and heat blew in our faces.

Blake stepped back covering his face. “A bit too much.”

Cara laughed and turned off the temperature.
“I could have fun with this.”

“You think this might work with Nicole?”

“I told you, leave it to me. She isn’t afraid of combat, you need to attack her worst fear otherwise you will face her again real soon.”

“Okay.”

N WEDNESDAY I gasped at a rumor one of the girls in my Arithmetic class told the girl next to her.

They sat three rows in front of me, but the super hearing that came with being a dragon was awesome.

“Blake slept with Nicole. Tabitha is so not happy about that.”

“Is that why she slapped her this morning? Why did he sleep with her, I thought he was so over the girlfriend thing.”

“She what?” The third one asked. Why I’d never gotten their names beats me.

“Danika, I swear, we all saw that. Lucky bitch.”

Don’t believe the rumors you’ll hear
. Oh Blake what did you do?

That afternoon he waited for me.

“You slept with her?”

He burst out laughing. “I told you not to believe the rumors.”

“Blake, I didn’t mean you should sleep with the girl in order to find her fear.”

“It’s the only way the female species spills their deepest secrets.”

“You know what, I don’t want to know,” I started to laugh. “Just tell me what’s she afraid of?”

“It really is pathetic.”

“Tell me.”

“She’s got a couple. One is vines that strangle you. Specifically, the creepers, then she’s scared of patsies.”

I gasped. “What’s a patsy?”

“You don’t know what a patsy is?” he asked through a huge grin.

“No, my father used to say it all the time, but he never told me what a patsy was.”

“It’s a small gecko that has a poisonous tongue, one lick will kill you but that’s a small piece of info that wasn’t shared with them, so instead of just licking their prey they roll over and pretend to be dead or limp, some even kill themselves.”

“Are you serious?”

He nodded with a huge grin on his face.

“She has others?”

“She doesn’t like the desert, something about the heat, and she has a thing for being ugly. I suggest you play with that one. Make her look ugly with boils and burns.”

“
Oh, I could have fun with that one
,” Cara said.

“My other suggestion is to give her hell, and she will never try to claim you again.”

“It’s funny you say that, it was Cara’s first thought.”

He burst out laughing. “You’ve got a funny way of dealing with things.”

“
What!”
Cara said.

He thinks I’m making you up
.

Cara was speechless but through her emotions I could tell it was bothering her a lot more than it bothered me.

“So I’ve been told,” I said out loud and sent Cara a message that we would deal with this later.

He showed me what a patsy looked like.

It was quite big, and had all sorts of blues and yellows over its body. It shimmered in the sun.

I watched as it licked its eyeballs every few seconds and when it saw us, it started to bite himself.

“Okay, enough! You didn’t have to show me the gruesome killing themselves part. You could just let him fall over and pretend to be dead!”

Blake just laughed.

“Why on earth people are scared of them, I don’t know.” Another patsy took its place.

It looked cute and the blue and orange on its face made it look as if it was smiling. I took over from Blake and imagined a couple of patsies playing around us.

Blake laughed. “Don’t let them play, Elena. Make them vicious.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Let me.” He gave them teeth and made their tongue longer so that they almost reached us. I moved away from them, which made Blake laugh again.

“They’re not real, but I’m sure you get the picture.” Blake laughed. “If you add them to the pit of hell, she will scream for the hills.”

“I hope she doesn’t go insane.”

“It should teach her to never even consider going after a Rubicon again.”

“Can she reverse it, you know back to what is real?”

“If she’s good and not afraid, yes.”

“Could she create a world where I would forget that it’s only a spell?”

“She’s not a dragon, Elena, and she’s only in her first year, besides spells don’t work on dragons.”

I sighed. “So she could only make me see what is real?”

He nodded.

“Just as long as I don’t end up being her bitch.”

He laughed again.

“Is this how you felt every time Lucian tried to claim you?”

“It was different with him. A part of me really wished that he would succeed but the dark in me wouldn’t let him. I’m just glad that I didn’t end up killing him. That last time when he didn’t get up and I just wanted to keep on fighting…” he stroked his face hard at that memory. “No one will ever be as brave as him.”

“He surely was that, and so much more.”

“You’ll see, tomorrow. I promise you, Nicole won’t claim you.”

“Okay.”

“Not okay, Elena. She won’t.”

“She won’t.”

I tried to have a discussion with Cara on our flight back but the info she’d gotten from Blake today still haunted her. She had plenty of questions and I couldn’t answer all of them, but it elevated some of her fears.