The dragon spoke again. “Call me when you have made your choice,” Lucian translated, “no dragons.”
The dragon flew away, and we got up slowly.
“This was a waste of time, Lucian,” Blake snapped.
‘We just have to choose one person,” Lucian bit back.
“Yeah, who's going to do it? You heard what he said, no dragons.” Blake sounded really pissed off.
My heartbeat went up a notch as I remembered my list, my calculations quickly added up of how many of us could enter. Lucian wouldn't make it out, and it was between me, Becky, and Arianna.
“I'll go. There's no other choice,” Lucian said.
“You can't.” I stopped him with my hand.
“What?’ Blake and Lucian asked the same time. The others just stared at me.
“No man has made it back. It was only women,” I said simply.
Blake laughed. “So what you’re saying is that men can't do this?”
“Yes,” I snapped at him, anything just to make that grin on his face disappear. It worked.
“Elena, you don't know that,” Sammy said, and her voice trembled a little.
“I did my research. Five made it out. They were all women.”
That gave them all something to think about, and it was quiet for a moment. Blake cussed loudly in the silence.
“So you want to tell me it's between Arianna and Becky.”
“And me, Lucian.”
His face hardened at once. “No, Elena,” he said. “I meant to say that you don't have nearly enough training to face anything behind these doors.”
“I'll go.” Becky stepped forward. George pushed her back and started to speak in Latin.
“Becky, are you still . . . intact?” I interrupted George, whispering the last part.
“What does that have to do with anything?”She pushed George aside, and gave me a look that almost made me regret that I’d asked her.
“Everything. You have to be a maiden.” I blurted it out, and all of them froze.
“Becky?” George demanded for her to answer. It was written all over her face. "You got to be fucking kidding me."
My heart pounded as I tried to change the subject. Just another reason for her to hate me.
“They were all maidens, which only means somewhere in there is a Sun-Blast,” I said.
Brian smiled.
Saying it out loud made me not want to do this anymore. I looked at Arianna and hoped by some miracle that she might still be a virgin.
“Well, Arianna, that means you are screwed.” Blake chuckled with Brian behind him.
She flipped them off with a sarcastic curled up lip.
George still argued with Becky.
“Oh come on! It was a onetime thing, and a huge mistake,” she yelled.
“George, not now,” Blake said through a grin. He was a dickhead and probably loved every minute of the two of them fighting.
George grunted.
You would think that he was a Sun-Blast and not a Moon-Bolt.
“So what you're saying is that only you can enter through these doors?” Blake asked me, not sounding hopeful.
“No, we tried. You can't go through those doors.” Lucian begged me to listen.
“We can't back out now. We're so close,” I shrieked.
“Elena, I don't know what's behind those doors,” he started to speak fast. “If you don't finish in a certain time, you'll never come back.”
“I know that.”
“What if there is a dragon that you have to fight. You don't have enough training. This is crazy.”
“Please don't start. I need to do this.” I wiped off a tear that had made its way onto my cheek. “If there's a dragon, then I'll fight.” I showed him the queen’s axes that were safely in a harness tied around my waist.
“Elena! You don't know what you're saying.” He had tears in his eyes, pleading with me to listen.
“I'm the only one that has a chance of making it out. Please, have a little faith in me.” My hands cupped his face as I used my words to try to soothe him.
“I promised that nothing would happen to you,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes and tried to stop them from tearing up. “And nothing will.” I sounded confident as if I knew exactly what waited for me in that cave.
Blake spoke to him in Latin. I just sighed, as I couldn't make out one word.
“You better come out, you hear me? Otherwise I'll blow this cavern apart,” Lucian said with tears in his eyes.
I nodded.
He grabbed me and buried his face in my neck. We stood like that for a long time.
“Come back,” he said again.
I could feel my eyes started to sting, but I swallowed it fast and nodded.
It was difficult for both of us to let go. Sammy was next. “Be safe.” Tears lurked in the corner of her eyes.