Once Upon a Dragon Soul (Once Upon a Dragon Series Book 3)

My and Blake’s clothes strewn and cluttered the carpet. Lucian’s bed was empty. I flinched as my body slightly ached, but what did you expect, married to a shape-shifting dragon. I doubted that he sometimes knew his own strength.

An arm twirled tighter around my body and pulled me closer to him. Warm, soft lips kissed my back and shoulders.

“Stop, we need to say goodbye to Vicky.”

“I threw her a party last night. It’s more than enough,” he said through kisses.

“Blake, stop, seriously.” I climbed out of the bed and picked up my jeans that were the closest. I pulled it up and grabbed my tank-top and jersey. He would give me my underwear later.

“No underwear?” My Adonis stared at me, lying on his bed, the covers barely covering him. Heat overpowered my core.

“Stop looking at me like that. Get out of the bed.”

Blake grunted and got out of bed, pulling on his jeans over his naked butt. I swear if he could walk naked in public, he would.

I glanced at the watch on his bedside table. We still had about fifteen minutes left to catch some breakfast.

“Hurry up. My stomach is growling.” I said as Blake was inside the bathroom while I tied my hair into a ponytail.

He zoomed out of the bathroom and literally pulled me out of the room. He didn’t even take the elevator, just pulled me down the stairs. When I almost fell, he put me on his back and rushed faster down the steps.

I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped my lips. He finally chuckled when he put me back down on my feet as we entered the cafeteria.

The gang sat around tables that they’d pushed together.

We went over to say hello and then immediately rushed to the buffet line before it closed.

I grabbed a tray and a plate and walked down the line. Sammy’s laughter exploded through the cafeteria and I looked at their table. Vicky didn’t look that great. “It looks like Vicky has a huge hangover.”

“Vicky isn’t the only one.” Blake nudged his head toward Jeff and Brian.

Annie walked up to us and wrapped her arm around Blake. “I feel like death.”

“You look like death.” He plopped a lot of scrambled eggs on his plate.

“Why did I drink so much?”

“Yeah, I tried to warn you to slow down, but no! What did you say to me? ‘Pfft, I got this, live a little.’” Blake made his voice pitchy to sound like Annie.

She gave him a lazy stare. Blake and I burst out laughing as we took our trays, filled with yummy breakfast, back to the table.

I plopped down next to Vicky, who sat opposite Sammy and Becky.

Blake and Annie took the pillows next to me. He dug into his food immediately as I took a huge sip of my coffee first.

Lucian was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn’t help but wonder where he was last night. Maybe he had put his differences with Tabitha aside and finally straightened a few things out with her. That would be a huge miracle.

Becky kept staring at me. I tried not to see it by focusing on my food or on Blake shoveling his down, but eventually it became way too creepy.

I lifted my shoulders, mouthing my what.

“Where were the two of you last night?” Sammy blurted, staring at her brother.

He finished chewing and swallowing the food that was in his mouth before answering, “You are my sister, not my mother.”

“You are playing with fire, Blake.”

He flipped his sister off, and she reached out for his finger, but his reflexes were too fast. Everyone around the table found the brother-sister bickering amusing.

Becky gave me her knowing smile, and I raised my eyes at her to stop.

She was so nosy, all of them were. They would have a hernia if they knew we were married.

It still sounded weird thinking that I’d married my dragon in secret. But I didn’t regret it for one minute. My father would skin us both alive, or worse, the disappointment might just kill me. I didn’t want to disappoint any of my fathers.

I missed the punch of the joke that had everyone in hysterics again, and the fluttering butterflies crashed against the walls of my stomach as Blake put his hand on my leg.

When we finally finished our breakfast, half of the group walked with Vicky to Master Longwei’s office.

Blake took her bag from her, and she gave him her melted look.

“Hey,” I bumped into her, “he is mine. Thank you very much.”

“You are such a buzzkill, you know that. We can’t even swoon.”

I laughed as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“I know. I’m hard to replace.”

I laughed. I loved her personality. She was so confident and whoever was going to get her as a dragon was going to be pretty lucky.

“You are going to be fine. You will find whatever it is you have to find and come back.”

“That is, if hunters don’t find me first and skin all my scales.”

“What hunters?” I asked.

“Nobody even knows about dragons on the other side. You are such a drama queen, Vicky,” Blake teased.

“I’m not. What about Fox, huh?”

“I took care of him.”

“What if there are more like him?”

“Then breathe fire on him. You are not a helpless dragon.”

“True.”

We reached Master Longwei’s office, and I knocked on the door.

He opened, and we all entered.

“What is this?”

“Farewell committee,” Blake answered.

She was going to leave via the elevators to one of the ports, where she had to pick up everything and sign some papers for the other side.

I hugged her. “I hope you find what you are looking for soon.”

“Me too.”

“But while you are doing it, have fun,” I said, with my lips close to her neck.

“You too. And be careful of Blake. He is getting way too cocky,” she whispered.

“Ha-ha,” Blake said as Vicky giggled.

“Just kidding. He’s a keeper.”

She hugged Becky next, and then Sammy.

It was sad to see her leave and scary at the same time. I mean, what if she didn’t find what she was looking for? Would they really not let her back in Paegeia? It seemed so drastic.

I hated seeing her leave, and it was weird walking into the room and her bed was empty. It was even weirder knowing that it would stay empty. She would not come back soon.

It got too depressing that I motioned for Blake to follow me. I didn’t want to be in the room.

“You okay?” he asked as we walked to the elevator.

“Yeah, it just feels so weird. It feels as if I’m never going to see her again.”

“She is going to be fine. With her personality, who knows, she might end up liking the other side way too much and never come home.”

The elevator opened, and we walked inside.

I still hadn’t seen Tabitha. She wasn’t even at the party last night.

We went to his room and fooled around on his bed. We even took a nap. When I woke up, Vicky’s situation still lingered.

“Why wouldn’t she be able to come back if she didn’t discover her prophecy?”

“Easy. Irene would die if they came back without knowing what they had to find. It sounds harsh taking one life above the other, but that is how this world works, for millennia.”

“Irene would really die? What about the prophecies that hadn’t been fulfilled? She is still alive?”

“True, but rumors are that those prophesies belonged to people that had died before they could fulfilled it.”

“You serious now?”

“You live in a world filled with magic, Elena, some people and dragons still hate each other.”

“So Vicky is forced to go because she is still alive?”

He nodded. “Irene shows signs of fever and bad coughing before the prophecy comes to play, if the person is still alive, she would get worse, if not, she would heal and then the prophecy turned color, not being fulfilled.”

An icy finger ran down my spine. “That is just plain scary.”

“That is the responsibility she carries as a viden.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon with him and later that evening, I went back to my room, thinking more about Vicky. My gaze lingered on her empty bed.

“Hey.” Sammy’s head popped up from the couch. The room was too quiet without Vicky.

“Hi,” I said, walking over to my bed.

I couldn’t believe just how much Vicky’s situation bothered me. It was wrong in so many ways.

BLAKE

Elena sulked a bit more than I thought she would. Vicky’s departure was hard on her.

Maybe it was the fact of how we dealt with things surrounding our prophecies on this side. I knew she still struggled with the one that Irene gave her.

She had many questions.

“Love, ask your dad. They know much more than I do.” I pulled her closer for a hug and rested my lips on top of her hair. I prayed she would find some rest with this. I didn’t want something as stupid as not being able to process information to be the wedge between us.

I shook the thought from my mind.

I didn’t know why I thought about it. Lately, a lot of things that felt foreign passed through my thoughts.

The weekend flew by in a whirl. I was super glad when Lucian left for the weekend, giving us space.

On Sunday, it was back to normal.

I hated saying goodbye to her, even if it was just for a few hours before I would sneak through her window.

She really was my everything. My heart felt as if a balloon swelled up in it and it would burst any moment.

On Monday, she eased back into the everyday routine.

In enchantments, sparks hovered around her as she spoke the Latin words to her shield.

Not that strong yet, but with practice, she would get there.

I celebrated with a kiss.

“Blake and Elena,” Professor Diggory said, and the entire class sniggered. “Dents.” He shook his head and carried on with teaching.

The rest of the classes were like a walk in the park to her, and her frustration with magic not working for her grew less and less. Meaning that I didn’t feel so much on the edge, which was a great feeling.

On Wednesday, something felt off. I didn’t know what that was, but it felt as if I’d taken all of Elena’s worry and frustration to shield her from it.

I walked into the cafeteria and found Elena speaking with Tabitha.

They were in a deep discussion. I ground my teeth. The girl had a rider, and she was still busy with her crap.

“Seriously, Tabitha, this is enough.”

They fell silent as her ice blue eyes grew and flickered to the table before she looked back at Elena. “Sorry, I’ll speak to you later.” She got up with her tray and plopped down on the table occupied by her friends.

“Blake?” Elena said as I kept staring at the coward.

“Yeah, better skunk off.” Tabitha was making me so mad. I plopped down in the chair.

“Where did this come from?”

“She will never stop.” My gaze met Elena’s and pure shock shone through round eyes.

“We actually had a decent conversation for once. She didn’t speak about you. I told you she Dented on Lucian. He is not giving her any of his time. It was not about you.”

“You really want me to believe that?”

“Yes, because it’s the truth.” She sounded stern.

Her sternness put everything back into perspective. “Oh.”

“Oh, that is all you are going to say? She deserves an apology.”

That grated on my skin at once as images of how much this chick had tried to come between Elena and me flashed through my thoughts. “An apology? She almost killed you twice, and she deserves an apology?”

Elena’s mouth gaped as her eyebrows raised, staring at me.

“Stop looking at me as if I have two heads.”

“You know what? I’m just going to go before I lose my patience with you today. Go back to bed and wake up again.”

I frowned. Why the hell would I do that? I watched her leave and shook my head.

Brian plopped down his tray in front of me. “Brian is wondering who pissed in her milk this morning.”

My scales shivered just hearing the idiot speaking in the third person. “I don’t have time for your third person crap either, Brian.”

“Sorry.” He lifted his hands. “Brian didn’t mean to offend Blake.”

“You are still doing it!” I got up, picked up my tray, and went to sit at another table.

I took a deep breath. I just needed to calm down before I tore someone’s head off.