I realized that the truth prophesized was actually multiple things. One; that a dragon offspring could become a Dragonian. Two; to learn that any sword or weapon could be turned into the King of Lion; you just needed blood from the true royals who didn't exist anymore. Last, that King Albert's theory about the Chromatic dragons was true. I couldn't wait to see the ink of my foretelling turn red. Only then, could I breathe again and carry on with my life without interference.
Life at Dragonia went back to normal. It spread instantly that I was the sixth person that made it out of the cavern. The status was cool for a while, but the moment the Viden wanted to see me again, I hated everything about it.
Classes went back to normal, but not for me. Most of them still sounded like Greek. My tutoring lessons also carried on, and Latin became my worst nightmare once again.
They hadn’t been kidding when they said that Blake had gone back to his old arrogant self. He was mean whenever I pronounced the words wrong. The one thing I did love was that we didn't talk about the mission at all. It was in the past and like me, I think Blake wanted to keep it in the past too. But I felt that I needed to do one more thing before I buried it completely.
"Thank you," I said during one of our lessons. He ignored my statement and carried on explaining the rules of grammar.
"Thank you, Blake," I said again. He just looked at me with no humor on his face, stared at me for a while, and then carried on.
I sighed, frustrated. I gave it another ten minutes and said thank you again.
"Stop it, Elena. There's nothing to thank me for, okay. I would've done it for anybody in that group." He sounded mean.
"What happened to 'you got all my respect when you get out of there’?"
He huffed. "To be honest, I didn't think you would get out of there. So, I lied. Sue me."
"I thought dragons lived by their oaths," I snapped back.
"Those rules don't apply to me," he said.
I got so angry that I kicked his shin, got up, and left.
"Elena!" He was down rubbing and complaining. I didn’t care if it hurt, he was an asshole, and it was our last tutoring lesson anyway. My choice.
The following week, Cheng struggled to teach me history as he was sidetracked and begged me to tell him what was inside the cavern. At a stage he even tried to guess, which was really tempting, but I didn't break my promise.
Lucian's class was another story.
He wasn't the slave-driving demon anymore,and I dubbed his session as "Making out time.”
All I know was that I would never leave him, so I hoped that he meant every single word when he said he loved me.
The tabloids were full of Blake, Arianna, Lucian, and Brian. With headings like; “Long Live the Chromatic” and “Axes Turning Evil to Dust.” They didn't want to stop.
The rest of the tutoring ended when Master Longwei called the eight of us to his office. He told us we were too emotional to study for the exams and that the board was going to let us pass.
It was Tabitha's idea, and I couldn't believe that Brian's death was the miracle I needed to pass first year. It wasn't right.
The last day of school came fast. I was going to spend half the summer with Becky and the other half with Sammy. Yeah, I didn't look forward to that other half.
Now that I knew Sammy’s father was theNight Villain, I got actually a little scared but found some relief that her mother was a Sparrow-Annex like Constance. I spent the night before with Lucian up in the tower we’d started our mission from.
"If my father finally comes to his senses, will you come and visit me at the palace?"
"Off course I will." I turned around to look at him. "I don't know how I'm going to spend this whole vacation without you."
He laughed. "Becky and Sammy live in Tith too, Elena. You will see me every day, I promise," he said.
His lips were warm on the tip of my nose. I lifted up my chin and we found each other’s lips in no time. It was a long, feverish kiss that left us both out of breath.
We stayed there until the sun came up. The morning flew by fast, and before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Lucian. It was so hard. His dad waited for him outside with Emmanuel and the royal carriage, so we had to say our “See you later” in the reception area.
He thrust a wrapped up package with a beautiful bow in my hands. It was clear that a girl had helped him with this.
"What is this?" I yelled, as he reached the main door.
"Becky will explain, I'll speak to you tonight," he shouted back. "I love you, Elena Watkins."
The other students in the reception made fun of his last line, but he waved it away. He didn't even wait for an“I love you” back.