Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (4 page)

“Did you enjoy your dinner last night?”

“I did, thanks Chef.”

He cocked his head at the whiteboard next to the buffet on the wall. “See my riddle?”

“Nope, and not going to until certain girls behave,” I joked.

He roared with laughter as I took my tray and went to Becky and Sammy’s table.

We stayed until the first bell rang and then made our way to Professor Pheizer’s class.

She was in her element when she saw Blake. He didn’t share her enthusiasm, but it still didn’t stop her from giving him a warm welcome back.

“So, today I was thinking of starting my lecture with Dragon Oaths.” Her eyes widened with this huge grin plastered on her face.

It made half of the class snicker, George in particular, but the other half, the ones that shared Blake and Tabitha’s mood, grunted slightly.

“So who can tell me what the difference is between a dragon’s promise and a dragon’s oath?”

“Is there a difference?” I spoke out of turn as I remembered that very first promise Blake had made when I went into the Sacred Cavern. But I knew the answer. Ever since I’d gotten my memories back from the stories Dad used to tell me when I was little, I knew there was.

She smiled. “There is a huge difference.”

Riley’s hand shot the highest and half the class slumped back in their chairs and rolled their eyes. Of course the know-it-all would have the answer.

“Riley?” Professor Pheizer asked.

“A dragon’s promise can be easily broken, but with a dragon’s oath, they would actually go through physical pain if they tried to break it, right?” She stared at Vivienne, her Night-Villain’s human form, sitting right next to her.

The dark head nodded.

“That is correct,” Professor Pheizer said in her over-excited tone. “George, why is a dragon’s oath so sacred?”

George chuckled. “Because it’s something we almost never do.”

Becky laughed the hardest.

“Becky, please share.”

“A dragon’s oath from him?” She joked too as I knew he had given his dragon oath plenty of times.

“I’m serious guys,” she said again. “Blake, you seem to know all the strangeness in dragons, tell us why dragon oaths are so sacred, why do you creatures hurt so much when you break one?”

“Because it’s how it is. To give a dragon’s oath is to swear with your entire existence, what you promise will be, if not, you wither in pain for all eternity.” He spoke in rhyme and it reminded me of the poems in my head.

Professor Pheizer must have thought about that too as she gave him a knowing, soft grin. The memory of his poem melting her away in that same chair was definitely evident on her face.

But Blake’s tone was dull. “Something that will never leave my lips. That is a promise,” he said through a huge grin.

Buttons!

She smiled. “Thank goodness that wasn’t a dragon’s oath.”

Becky had to suppress her laughter as Tabitha just glared at Professor Pheizer.

“Oh, I’ll say it if you want me to, as it means nothing to me.”

“Don’t Blake. I’m sure you would like to say it one day to that beautiful girl sitting next to you, and then the regret of this day is going to bite you in the butt.”

Tabitha smiled and Blake’s lips curled slightly.

I didn’t like that for some reason, but I knew Professor Pheizer wasn’t an idiot.

She didn’t want him to make that oath, even though he would never give me his dragon oath, he could still give it to Tabitha.

The lecture went on about how sacred and strong dragon oaths were. In the old days they used to have a ceremony once a month where dragons could give their oath in front of hundreds of people. It was also something that’d died out when the Creepers consumed Etan and oaths became as rare as Dents. Even though there were two in this classroom.

When the bell finally rang everyone scattered.

I let Blake and Tabitha leave first and was one of the last students to leave Professor Pheizer’s class.

“Elena, can I please have a word?” she asked and I lowered my backpack and almost dragged it behind me, so un-princess like.

I smiled as I reached her and she mimicked my action with a much kinder and warmer smile.

“I know you are going through a very difficult time and I said those words…”

“Professor, you don’t have to explain it to me.”

“Let me finish.” She gave me the eye with a soft curve at the lips. “I didn’t want him to say it, as the right time will come when he’ll really want to say it….and not to Tabitha.”

I huffed. “It really doesn’t matter to me that much.”

“It should. He is your Dent. The boy that is going to literally want to give you the moon and the stars, the one that is going to protect you for the rest of your life.”

I wanted to protest as I knew that was so not going to ever happen. It made me think back to my father’s, Herbert’s, stories. He told me that too, and if it wasn’t for Cheng’s ability to show them to me, bless his heart, I would still not have remembered them. But…they were all wrong.

“Don’t. It always happens when the right time comes. You just need to be patient.”

“So everyone keeps telling me.”

“Be patient, Elena. Your bond was supposed to have been made a long time ago.”

I didn’t argue as I really didn’t want to speak about this anymore. I didn’t like anything the Dent stood for.

So I took a deep breath and nodded.

“Now go, before you miss the second bell.”

I opened her door and found Sammy and Dean waiting for me. Becky and George were a couple of paces in front walking side by side.

“What was that about?” Sammy asked and I scrunched up my nose to tell her it was nothing.

Dragon promises or oaths made no difference to me as I knew the day one left Blake’s mouth was the day that he wasn’t going to be the same anymore.

THOUGHT THE DAY that Blake came back was going to be the day classes might get easier, but I was way off.

Blake, well he was Blake, he rebelled against everything that involved working with me, and in every class he could.

“Blake?” Professor Mia asked with a huge grin on her face. “Think you want to show Elena how it’s done?”

He just squinted and it already made my stomach turn, not from wanting him, but from knowing his reply was going to be cruel.

“Why would I want to show Elena anything?” he said and I saw Becky glaring at him.

He was a dick.

“Blake, she’s—”

“She is nothing, Mia, and if you are going to push this, I don’t need this class, you know I don’t.”

“Still here, if you forgot.” I spoke out of turn and tried to make it as harsh as possible.

He stared at me. “Oh, sorry for my bluntness, Princess.” The sarcasm flowed through his demeanor.

“Arrogant bastard.” I spoke softly but I knew that almost everyone in the class had heard me.

“Seriously, man.” George tried too.

Blake just shot him a glare.

“George, don’t. There is no cure for thick-headedness.” I got up and walked to the door.

“Elena.” Professor Mia tried but I kept walking as fast as I could and out of the Parthenon Dome.

When I exited the door, I could still hear them thanks to my enhanced hearing.

“You are going to regret all of this one day,” Professor Mia said. “Even though the other professors are too scared to say this out loud. I’m not. You are being a prick, and a cry baby for what that girl has done for you. You don’t deserve anything.”

Okay, so that I hadn’t expected from Mia, but I covered my ears and blocked out Blake’s reply.

If you look up hopeless in the dictionary, it would say Blake and Elena. It was never going to happen and each day I started to realize it more and more.

I went back to my room and read one of my mother’s journals again.

It was about the time she’d met Tanya, she was trapped in a dragon’s trap, her wing was badly injured and my mom just wrote how scared she was. That it emanated from her. My mother soaked Tanya’s emotions up and I started to see the pattern. My mom was part of a Dent too. She shared one with Tanya and they’d gone through exactly the same thing we were.

My father, bless his heart, was so gentle with Tanya that it made my mom fall in love even more.

She wrote about Emanual too, how he’d communicated with Tanya, in his dragon form, telling her that they were the good guys.

He’d calmed her down, even if Emanual wasn’t really sure if he should trust any of them either.

My mom wrote plenty about Emanual’s dark side, a side I’d never seen before.

Her stories were the best. My mom was brave and I understood why my father wanted her so much.

She always spoke her mind and I could just imagine what type of queen she’d been, what type of a mom she would’ve been. I would’ve been a completely different person if I’d had her in my life to show me how to be brave, and strong, fearless and not scared of anything.

She sure sounded like one of those. Even in the scariest moments she wrote down, she never cried. She always figured out ways to defend herself, and get herself out of her messes, alive.

The bell rang again and it was time for Aviance. A class I really wanted Blake to participate in but that was yet another wish that would never be fulfilled. Still, I went to the Coliseum and found Professor Vladimir and Professor Alexandra waiting in the ring.

They both smiled as I entered. Nobody else was there yet.

“Elena!” Professor Alexandra said. She was Professor Vladimir’s dragon and a Swallow Annex just like Constance. She was gorgeous with short silver spiky hair and the most beautiful green eyes.

He – well he was huge; huge shoulders, huge arms, huge frame, huge everything. With brown hair and a slightly crooked nose that still made Becky, Sammy and I wonder whether it made him gorgeous or not.

“Professors,” I said back.

“You think he is going to participate?”

“Nope, we just had a moment in Art of War. That dragon is far from ready to do anything he is supposed to do.”

“Give him time, Elena,” Professor Vladimir said. “The impasse stage has never been easy for Dragonians. The Chromatics rebel for as long as they can, but they always succumb.”

“Always,” Professor Alex said too. “Seen it a million times. He will too.”

“Thanks,” I said, not sounding very excited. To be honest I really wasn’t looking forward to that time at all.

One by one students walked into the Coliseum. Peter entered alone without Tabitha. He plopped down right next to me as all the other dragons started to shift into their form.

We sat and watched as Dragonians hoisted saddles onto their backs.

The couple finally made their gracious entrance. Blake’s arm was around Tabitha’s neck and I could hear the vulgar words – which were probably sexy to her – he whispered in her ear. It was so cheap and disgusting.

Peter, on the other hand, looked hurt.

“Hey, if it’s any consolation, both of them are idiots. We’re just the losers that ended up with them.”

“I chose to claim her Elena,” he said and looked down at his feet.

“Then my advice is to do what we do best, give them plenty of space and time.”

“Time for what?” Blake spat at me and Professor Vladimir climbed off of Alex’s back. He told her to go and she took flight, the others flying right behind her.

I stared at them as they each lifted off gracefully.

“I’m talking to you, Elena, time for what?”

“Blake, that is enough.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he snapped at Professor Vladimir.

“Seriously,” I answered him. “You are acting like a two-year-old again. Stop being such a cry baby. You think you have it so hard.” I mocked him. “Well try living in my shoes, then speak again.” I shook my head. “All you have to do is stay away from your dark side. How hard can that be?”

“Then stop wasting your time, ’cause I’ll never be your dragon, Elena. Even if they put a gun to my head.”

“Then what do you want, Blake, what? Just tell me and you can have it.”

“Set me free!”

“Fine, you want that.”

“Enough!” Professor Vladimir screamed. “You, out of the Coliseum.” He pointed at the entrance, staring Blake straight in the eye. Blake’s upper lip twitched slightly but to my surprise he chuckled and turned around.

“Tabitha, the choice is yours. You can go with him or become somebody,” Professor Vladimir said.

She shook her head, turned around and followed Blake.

“Elena, don’t ever give in to that. He doesn’t know what he is saying. He needs you.”

“When, fifteen years from now? Because I’m sure that door will be long closed by then. I’m sick and tired of his whining all the time about how unfair all of this is.”

“I know. This is the longest any dragon has ever rebelled and I don’t know how long this is going to carry on, but you have to be patient.”

I just stared at them. The two of them had this arrangement so easy. Alex wasn’t a Chromatic.

I took a deep breath and sat next to Peter again.

He shook his head with a soft grin. “Ever since he got back, I can’t even look at Tabitha.”

“Deal with it Peter, I sure don’t have time for your whining either.” I got up and left the Coliseum.

I found Blake and Tabitha sitting on the steps that led to the big oak door of the Academy. They were in each other’s arms. When I neared, Blake stood up and ran down the steps and came to a stop right in front of me. “Wondered when you were going to show. Running away again?”

“Bite me.” I pushed him away to get past but he blocked me again.

“Say it, Elena.”

I laughed. “You know that’s not how it works, Blake. You carry my gifts.” I spat out the word “my”. “I’m not going to part with that.” I sneered.

“They are mine! I was born with them. You’re just a mere human that can’t even handle these types of powers.”

“Whatever, asshole.” I tried to walk past him again.

“Say it.” He pushed me back once more.

“Let me go, or I’ll make your life a living hell.”

He laughed. Which actually made him look hot.

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Don’t push me Blake.”

“No, seriously Elena, how? You are nothing, you…”

I couldn’t listen to him anymore and I felt a strong jolt running up my arm. I swung at him and an invisible force took him out of my way. He flew into the air and came crashing down hard on the turf.

I had no idea how I’d just done that, but a part of me felt good and a part of me felt bad.

“What is wrong with you?” Tabitha was up in my face.

“You want some of it too?” I yelled back, anger jolting through my core immediately.

She backed away and started running down the steps toward Blake.

“Just like I thought.”

She tried to help Blake up but he pushed her away. He was such a dickhead.

I had to get away from all of this, from the Academy, from the professors and their constant saying, “he will Dent one day”. I was sick and tired waiting for his sorry ass.

I walked out of the castle toward the gate and found Julia taking a smoke break around the corner of the infirmary.

“Who spat in your milk this morning?”

“You really want me to answer that?”

“Is he vicious, huge and an ass?”

I nodded.

“Then no.”

“I need your help, please. I just need to get out for a short while.”

“Elena, I could get fired.”

“I’ll take the blame, please, Julia. Just take me down.”

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know yet, I’ll be back later this afternoon. I just can’t be here right now. Please. I kept your smoking a secret for who knows how long.”

“Fine, before five you come back, you hear?”

“Promise.”

“Okay.”

She took off her clothes and transformed into her Night Villain form. She looked just as hideous as Sir Robert.

I grabbed her paw and stood on one talon as she flew with me to the forest below.

“Five o’clock, Elena.”

“Yeah, I promise,” I said and jogged down the road, took a tram and went to the port. I took an elevator to Tith and another tram to Longbottoms.

Nobody even recognized me as I hid my face under my hoody. Why would they? To them, I was in Dragonia, away from everything, training to handle my abilities and to be able to tame the mighty Rubicon.

If only they knew the truth; it would be in all the papers by tomorrow morning.

I opened the door of Longbottoms.

“Welcome, table for one?” Monique, the new manager Jimmy had hired, greeted me and gasped as she saw it was me. “Elena, what are you doing here? You are supposed to be at Dragonia.”