Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,7
at the floor for a short second and the expression of what I’d seen earlier in his eyes became evident on his face. He stood up and walked toward Master Longwei.
Constance helped me up and the woods that had looked so small before gave me the opposite impression now. Most of the trees around us lay flat, bent at their trunks in sort of a sad bow. We had to climb over them to get out of the woods and I closed my eyes to the destruction around me. This could never happen again.
Constance stayed close to me and carried most of my weight as we walked. I felt drained and tired, as if I could sleep for a whole month. My eyes found hers and she gave me a soft smile and a squeeze. How had everything gotten so messed up?
I wasn’t just a dragon, I was a Rubicon. Nothing made sense. How can there be one special dragon for the light that can turn into a dragon meant for the dark?
“I thought only one Rubicon lived at a time?” I whispered to Constance.
“That’s true, but ever since you came to Paegeia Elena, plenty of things have happened that we just don’t have answers for,” Constance said quietly.
“Yay me,” I sulked.
She giggled softly. “See, you’re almost back to normal.”
It was silent for a while as we tried to find a way out of the woods. “It’s not so bad. You’ll get used to her,” Constance tried to reassure me.
“I don’t think it’s the “getting used to her” part I should be worrying about.” I sighed and found Constance’s worried gaze on me again. “It’s hard to explain. Um, when I’m her…” I sighed again. “When she takes over, I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Constance smiled. “Ever heard the term Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?”
I nodded. “It’s exactly like that.”
“It’s normal, Elena. You’ll remember more every time you turn and the procedure will come faster too. The rest, well there is only one dragon that can really help you with that,” she said and nodded toward Blake who walked right next to Master Longwei, speaking in Latin. He despised every hair on my body. Yet today he’d showed me some kindness, some sympathy.
“Will I become evil too?”
Constance’s eyes glistened but she looked away. “I don’t know, Elena. Only time will tell.”
I bit the inside of my lip and nodded again.
We finally reached the edge of the forest and I had to admit, my dragon form was really fierce and had taken a third of the forest down with her.
Blake took his robe off and I looked away. The change came so naturally to him, and when I heard the tear and pop sound, I knew he’d transformed into a dragon.
Constance looked at me.
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Okay.” She smiled, took off her robe and walked away from me to transform. She was such a beautiful dragon. Her silver scales shimmered in the last ray of sunlight, almost blinding me as they reflected at just the right angle. Her long neck made her look majestic and she had a small white beard right below her chin. Her Swallow wings were my favorite feature. She held out her paw and I grabbed it, using her talons to stand. She lifted off and as soon as the ground was a couple of paces below me I closed my eyes. My heart beat like crazy as she pulled me closer to her body.
Her leathery torso felt warm, soft and she smelled clean, like the forest.
I tried to listen for her heartbeat but could barely hear it. Funny how everything about them was so different from us. I took a deep breath.
You are a dragon, Elena.
We landed back on Dragonia Academy turf half an hour later. I gave Constance a hug after she’d shifted back into her human form, and thanked Blake awkwardly as he stood butt naked with his robes hanging over his arm, still speaking to Master Longwei.
He had absolutely no shame when it came to his naked body, none of them did, and I doubted that it was going to be that easy for me.
When I entered the room, Sammy grabbed me around my neck.
My arms started to shake and I didn’t know if it was the reality of me almost killing her that had finally kicked in. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shhhh, I’m perfectly fine, not even a hair was harmed.”