Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,92

woke up but your need for me was too strong. You are stronger now, and you know what must be done.”

“I can’t do that. I won’t do that,” I yelled at her. “You are my dragon, and that is final.”

“I’m not your dragon and I’m not going to fight with you. I don’t want that to be my last memory of you, Elena. I want it to be a peaceful one. You will be fine. You are stronger now, it’s time to let me go.”

Silence filled the air leaving us both with only the flapping sound of our wings.

“Can I ask you one favor though?”

I nodded.

“Can you please try and get me to see the stars?” Her voice came out a whisper, even the glimpses of the stars she was thinking of was weak. “I want to see them one last time.”

“Cara, I can’t do this. I don’t know how to, I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Baby, but no need for both of us to die. You were made for so much more, you need to save the people of Etan. It was both our home. You are an amazing girl Elena, and I can see great things in your future. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

I knew it was a lost cause to try and talk her out of this. She’d made up her mind and she was exactly like Dad. When they made up their minds it was final. I swallowed my anger and the ache in my torso and used all my strength to climb into the sky. We entered a thick blanket of clouds and when we passed it we found the most beautiful sky filled with diamonds. There were so many that I started to lose myself in their beauty.

Cheng finally woke up as if the stars had given him extra strength and I could feel his weight dissipating from my body. He let out a soft wailing sound too. We might not understand one another in dragon form, and he might not be able to hear Cara’s thoughts, but that wail said enough. He knew what was happening and the only way he could show me his sympathy was the noise he’d made a couple of seconds ago.

“Isn’t this beautiful?” Cara said.

I’d taken the potion from him before I’d changed. If Cara was going to die, it would be through love.

“It’s time, Sugar, I’m ready.”

I chucked the potion, bottle and all, into my mouth and crushed the glass with my jaw. A hot lava-like liquid ran down my throat and I could feel it burn into my stomach. I screamed and another shrieking sound that pierced both our ears filled the night. The poison of that bottle ran through my veins and I could feel my dragon body turning ice cold, as if I’d swallowed liquid nitrogen.

“I will always watch over you,” Cara’s voice was faint and then it disappeared. I could feel my body shrinking, shifting back into a human. My heart was thumping in my chest as Cheng’s dragon form flashed by me as I fell back down to earth. It was beating faster and louder. I saw my arm and hand with fingers and saw in slow motion how Cheng darted back down to me. My heart’s rhythm beat slower and slower and then beat its last.

T WAS DARK, cold and the feeling of being utterly alone was all I had left. There was no more Lucian, no more Cara, there was nothing.

A jolt ran up my body, right through my core, and I couldn’t breathe for a couple of seconds as pain I’d never felt before ran its course. Then stopped. A couple of seconds of darkness and loneliness filled the space around me again before another jolt of pain emerged.

What the hell is this?

“Elena?” The voice sounded far away, and hollow. I could feel my chest expanding and then there were three pushes. The cycle repeated a couple of times.

I heard my name again, it was a voice I knew. Not my father’s and not Lucian’s. It was … Cheng.

With a hard and burning gasp my lungs filled with air. My eyes flew open and Cheng lifted me into an embrace. “I thought I’d lost you. Tanya didn’t mention anything like this,” he said into my hair.

I started to cry as I knew what I’d just done. I’d killed a part of me; I’d killed Cara.

“Shhhh,” Cheng cried too. “It had to be done, Elena. She