that picture was exactly what Nicole was afraid of. The boils and the patsies; the same patsies he’d conjured that day on the rocks with their tongues a bit longer and their evil glares.
“I’ll speak to you later,” I whispered.
“Okay, Babe.”
I shifted and pulled on my clothes fast. Becky and Sammy were waiting for me outside the ring.
“You are the shit!” Becky sang and held out her hand for a high five, but when she saw that I didn’t share her enthusiasm, her grin faded and Sammy’s smile disappeared as they saw the confusion on my face.
“What’s wrong?” Becky asked.
“I’ll tell you later, too many ears,” I said. “Any of you seen Blake?”
“He’s not with you?” Sammy asked.
“He was, but he disappeared.”
We went back to the castle and I hoped that I would find him on the way, but he was really gone. When we reached the room they couldn’t stop talking about the pit of fire, saying that it would go into the book of worst places Dragonians ever faced inside the ring.
“I’m so glad that I didn’t have to claim you.”
“You don’t get it Becky, that wasn’t me.” I looked at Sammy. “I think it came from your brother.”
ORRIED WAS AN understatement and Blake was missing in action. What Blake had done was called Intervening and by law, Nicole could claim me as her dragon without any further ado.
How it all worked was still Greek to me, but the one thing I got was unless you’re Blake, if someone interferes with a claiming, the dragon automatically becomes that Dragonian’s property. I didn’t know if it went for me too, since I was what he was, but I wasn’t going to tell anyone and find out.
I hate the word claiming now even more, and I had never thought so much about it until now. I guess seeing everything through a dragon’s perspective was a whole different world.
The rest of the day I searched everywhere for Blake. It was hopeless and I had a restless night.
The queen still somehow managed to jump in-between a giant Nicole claiming a baby Rubicon, which I assume was me. She dragged me to that forest and then turned into the queen. I could hear her saying my name, but it wasn’t directly, it was floating on the wind.
I woke up the minute she burst into flames again. Cold sweat ran down my back as I remembered Lucian telling me about Queen Catherine being strapped to her bed and set on fire. No person should die that way.
The next day, class couldn’t move fast enough. Every subject dragged and I kept staring at the clock. Each second that ticked by felt like an hour.
When the last bell rang I ran to my room to change. I pulled on my robe over my naked body and ran to the trees close to the lake. When the coast was clear I shifted and flew to the mountain where I’d met Blake for the past five weeks.
He wasn’t there and I shifted back, pulled on the robe and waited by one of the boulders. If it was him who had put that image into my head….he’d lied.
I racked my mind for any other explanation, but none came. It was just an image, but I knew for a fact it wasn’t mine. It had that same familiar feeling as the image I’d gotten that day in Professor Gregory’s class when we covered the Green Vapor.
Could Blake really do that? Lucian said he didn’t own that type of ability, but then again, Lucian only knew about four of Blake’s abilities.
“Sorry I’m late.”
I jumped but didn’t look at him. I could see through the corner of my eyes his hands fiddling with getting the robe over his head. I closed my eyes.
I could feel the heat from his body radiating as he sank down onto the boulder next to me.
“Are you okay?” he bumped me softly.
“I don’t know.”
“Elena, she didn’t claim you.”
I gave him a stern look. “Was it you?”
“Was it me, what?”
“You know what I’m talking about Blake.” I got up, scared to speak about this, afraid someone else might hear.
“No, I don’t.”
“The hell, with the evil patsies and everything,” I spat at him. “It wasn’t me, and it sure wasn’t Cara, so I don’t know who the hell imprinted that scene into my head. Paul was the only one, Blake.”
“It’s not Paul, okay,” he said fast. “The desert wasn’t scary enough, Elena.”
“I don’t care.
“She wasn’t afraid of it. It