surprised that the Academy wasn’t much different than the tabloids. There was one group that believed that I was a princess, and those kids treated me really nicely, and then there was the other group who still believed I was a dragon and that I had tricked everyone, hiding my true form. How was I going to prove that I wasn’t a dragon anymore? Chuck myself off a building and show everyone with my splattered body and guts strewn on the floor? Yeah, some darkness still lingered inside of me, deep inside of me.
What the hell was my father thinking when he’d kept my existence a secret? He must have known this day would come and that this would happen.
I held the letter inside my hand. I’d stared at this stupid thing ever since Master Longwei dropped it off.
I had my meeting tonight with the council and the Ancients were going to be there. My future lay in their hands. To be honest I didn’t care what they were going to choose, it wasn’t as if I’d grown up as royalty. I was still Elena Watkins.
Elena Malone… it didn’t even sound right. Still that was King Albert’s last name. The queen had been Squire, I’d seen that in the book the Keeper made me sign when I exited the cavern.
They felt like strangers to me, even though I saw the things I’d seen and I’d experienced the memory my mom wanted me to see. I wondered what it would have been like if they’d defeated Goran? Would my mom have come for me if she was still alive?
“Of course she would, Elena,” my inner voice sniped.
I hadn’t dreamt about her since that last night in Tanya’s place. She had been saying goodbye.
Tanya could explain everything.
“I’ve got to go, see you later,” I said as I picked up my plate from the table.
“Elena, we’ve still got class,” Becky said.
“I don’t have a dragon, what could I possibly learn?” I rolled my eyes and she waved it away.
I ran up the stairs back to my room. Master Longwei wanted to give me one of my own, but it would feel weird without sharing with my besties and to be honest, I couldn’t be alone right now.
I opened my Cammy and rang Sir Robert’s number. He’d sworn his life to me that day in the infirmary and with every major interview from the paparazzi he was right at my side.
Whenever they got too pushy and demanding, he would literally chuck their asses out of the infirmary, sometimes he even answered questions on my behalf, and told many that he truly believed that I was his rider’s daughter. He even asked me before one interview if he should lie. He’d gotten so desperate for them to believe my story, but I shook my head.
There was this one interview that went so bad when some reporter asked the question of how I could let my father’s traitor protect me. It made me furious and I wanted to slap her silly, but it wasn’t princess-like. So I answered her instead, “Oh now you believe I’m the princess?” A couple of them laughed, but I received a lot of negative comments after saying that.
I had a feeling this princess thing wasn’t going to be easy and King Helmut was right. It wasn’t easy to prove to people who I really was without any evidence.
Blake still hadn’t returned. Part of me worried about him. I guessed I’d always known deep down inside who he was, but I didn’t want to believe it. He’d lied so many times. I even wondered if what Paul had told me was the truth, me hearing his thoughts or if Cheng was right. Thinking back to that time I’d fallen in love with Blake, he’d seemed really interested in what I’d heard. I had to admit, his voice sounded nothing like the dragon that spoke to me inside the Coliseum and the one in my head didn’t sound anything like Blake. He loved poems and I couldn’t imagine Blake ever loving poems. I huffed.
None of it really mattered as one thing was clear. He didn’t want me to be his rider, dent or no dent, that boy had hated my guts since the first time I laid eyes on him. Lucian was wrong about him warming up to me, but then I thought back to the couple of times I’d thought Blake was going to kiss me.
I shook my head and spoke Sir