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

On Sunday, I tried to spend as much time with my dragon as possible.

He was a bit more relaxed today, but still very clingy. Blake protested when I left around five to meet Becky in the Parthenon Dome.

On Monday, everything was back to normal, and it was difficult to train Becky and spend time with Blake so that he didn’t become Mr. Grouchy Pants again.

It reminded me that I still had to ask Tabitha for that one little favor. She wasn’t George’s friend like Blake and I doubted she looked at helping us as betraying him.

I reached up to her on the stairs leading to the girls’ dorms before Art of War.

“Hey, how are things lately with you and Lu?” I asked.

“It’s getting there. I mean, he trusts the dragon part of me more and more. I feel as if he thinks we are two distinct entities.”

I laughed at that as her lips quirked, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She looked kind of depressed. I rubbed her arm. “Hey, his eyes are going to open, eventually. Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure,” she said as we got into the elevator.

“I need help with Becky. Well, we need help from a dragon, and Blake thinks he is betraying George by helping us. Sammy hasn’t mastered it yet.”

“What?”

“When you showed Lu the mountains filled with snow…you think you can help us with the desert so that Becky can learn how to change it back.”

“Sure, when?”

“This afternoon at two. Parthenon Dome.”

“Will Blake be okay with it?”

“Oh, please. He is so over it. He should’ve actually apologized to you. I hope—”

“No, he did.”

“Good. Yeah, he is fine with that. So at two?” The door opened, and we walked out of the elevator. She opened the door that led to more rooms as I took the steps leading to our door.

“I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, Tabitha.”

She smiled and pushed through the door.

I couldn’t wait to see if Becky was going to succeed with pushing back.

The rest of the day flew by. I had lunch with the gang and at two went to the Parthenon Dome.

Tabitha was already waiting for us, and Becky sort of froze when she saw her.

“Relax, she is actually extremely nice.”

“If you say so,” Becky mumbled as we walked into the training room.

I sat this one out as Tabitha actually trained Becky, giving me a breather. She told her what she had to do, and then they practiced it over and over until Becky’s nose bled.

I took her to Constance’s office, thanking Tabitha for her time while giving Becky my towel to stop the bleeding. It was the headache that killed it for her.

Constance healed it pretty fast, and we called it an afternoon.

I’d spend some quality time with Blake in his room and after dinner, it was back to training Becky.

Wednesday afternoon, Lucian offered to take Becky for the last time to the simulator.

“You don’t mind?”

“No, you should really spend some time with him, Elena.”

I didn’t like the way Lucian said it.

I nodded. “Thanks, Lu.”

“You’re welcome.”

Lu left, and I sat on the couch, waiting for Blake to come back.

The door opened, and I saw his figure retreating into the bathroom.

When he got out of the bathroom, he actually froze when he found me on the couch waiting for him.

“I thought you had to train Becky.”

“Lu is going to take her through the simulator one last time. So they are spending this afternoon in Tith.” I tapped on the spot next to me, and he plopped down into it. “We need to talk.”

“Oh-oh,” he said, making me laugh. A chuckle left his lips. “It’s never a great thing when a girl says ‘we need to talk.’ You breaking up with me? As you know, you can’t.”

“Stop. I’m not breaking up with you, but you have to admit the past week, you were not the easiest person to be around.”

“Because I had to share you with others.”

“Blake, I love you to bits, but I’m my own person, too. I need time with my friends. It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be with you or around you. Becky really needed me, but the way you acted was really weighing me down. I can’t deal with the possessiveness. I thought we’d established that we are not each other’s possessions.”

“Yeah, we had. I’m sorry.”

“I know it was hard, and hopefully tomorrow she will claim her dragon. She is going to need a miracle for that to happen, by the way.”

“You think she’s not ready?”

“She needs more time. I mean, the girl caught on fast, and I mean fast, but it’s hardly enough time to train to claim a dragon like George.”

“I get what you mean. It’s only her first year. Maybe she had extra training before Dragonia. The rich kids’ parents do that a lot if they have the mark, to enroll them in extra classes.”

“Could be why she is such a fast learner.”

“Yeah, okay, enough talk about Becky. You are mine,” he said, raising his eyebrows, and tackled me down on the couch. Laughter spilled from my lips as his stubble beard tickled the inside of my neck. Still, it felt as if the weight expelled from my shoulders now that we’d had this talk.

We could finally move forward.

On Thursday, four o’clock, Becky was about to claim George. I rushed with my flip-flops to the colosseum.

Goosebumps covered my entire body as we neared. I couldn’t believe I’d almost missed it.

When I heard loud cheers and chants, I made a run for it. I gasped as I saw how packed the colosseum was. There were people sitting in the stands other than the students and professors, and I finally understood how big of an event this was. Thankfully, nothing had happened yet.

George threw a show for the crowd. He ran up and down the sides where all the dragons sat, touching people’s hands as he passed. Loud music boomed through the colosseum, and he ripped off his t-shirt. The girls screamed wildly.

Blake wasn’t anywhere to be found, and I hated he would not watch this with me.

George was very muscular, with an eight pack bulging from his stomach.

I still hated his arrogance. The Chromatic dragons cheered the loudest and instructed him to show Becky a thing or two.

“They’re wasting their time,” Sammy said in a singing tone. She led me to the side where all the Dragonians sat.

“Why?”

“That down there is Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde will come out in a couple of minutes.”

I understood that analogy, and we found Lucian, but no sign of Blake.

“You’ve seen Blake?” I asked Lu.

“No, I thought he was with you.”

I shook my head, sighing. Where the hell was he now? I took out my Cammy and typed out a message. I watched to see as if he had read it, but the little circle didn’t change color. The worry gnawed at me, as I still did not know what he meant by my father trying to speak about something that made him uncomfortable. Dad said he has to ask me, and if I asked him, he gets riled up.

I couldn’t help thinking that he hadn’t been the same since they’d freed my father.

Sammy and another girl were back-biting each other until Lucian stepped in and made both of them quiet. Sammy hugged Lucian’s arm with a smile on her face.

“Where’s Becky?” I stretched my neck to see if I could spot her somewhere.

“She’s still inside, going over some strategies with Mia.”

“Mia? She gives her pointers and things?”

“Not really, but she gives one hell of a pep talk.”

We Will Rock You by Queen played, and it didn’t take the crowd more than a few seconds to get up on their feet and clap their hands with the rhythm.

The song was wicked, the way Lucian would state it.

George exploded into his huge dragon form, which made me stare like an idiot. The only Moon-Bolt I’ve seen was Fox that day inside the cubicle, and it felt like eons ago, but the effect it had on my body felt like yesterday.

I struggled to breathe as Fox overpowered my mind, and I couldn’t sit here. I had to get out. The aisle was a few steps away from me.

“Elena?” both Sammy and Lucian asked, and footsteps followed. Sammy reached me just as I was about to go down another flight of stairs away from the fight.

“Go back. One of us has to see it.”

“What happened?”

I shook my head with tears in my eyes.

“Where the hell is my brother?” she yelled and took out her Cammy.

“Stop. I tried. I don’t know where he is.” I sunk down the steps.

“Elena?”

“I’m okay, just go, please. I can’t.”

“We are going to talk about this later, promise?”

I nodded.

She got up and walked back to her seat.

The cheers and gasps reached my ears. I didn’t even know what she looked like. I remembered what they wanted me to wear, but I thought it was sexist and declined, as I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing it.

I took deep breaths as I tried to get rid of the images in my mind of that night. Fox had chained me up like cattle.

My Cammy vibrated, and I opened it.

It was a text from Blake.

Sorry, I fell asleep. Where are you?

“Claiming,” I typed back, and that was it.

When the colosseum’s walls vibrate from the cheering , I knew something happened, and I rushed up the steps just as Blake came rushing down.

“You okay?”

“What happened?”

“He released his abilities. She’ll be fine.”

“She claimed him.”

“Yeah, guess your training helped, a lot.” He smiled, but his smile faltered. “Elena, what is wrong?”

“It’s nothing. It’s stupid.”

He pulled me in for a hug and the tension eased. “Let me guess, you saw his form, and it brought on some memories.”

I nodded and pulled away as tears laid into my eyes again. “It’s stupid. It’s a long time ago.”

“Not that long ago, Elena. It’s not even a year.”

“I thought this was behind me, Blake.”

“Give yourself some time. Okay. You are allowed to heal the way everyone else does. And if they say otherwise, they will have to go through me.”

Students started rushing down steps, and we turned around and ascended the same steps. Sammy rushed past us.

“It’s Becky. The asshole unleashed his abilities—”

“He has no control over it, Sammy.”

“He is still an asshole, Blake,” she yelled back and grabbed my arm.

“See you later,” I said as she pulled me behind her.

“Yeah,” he replied, and I knew this past week hadn’t been easy on him as I’d spent so much time with Becky, helping her, that I’d barely spent any time with him. I’d make it up somehow.

Sammy babbled something about her getting badly hurt. He didn’t slack and gave it his all, but she was fast and congratulated me on that part.

We squashed through the crowd while they were still chatting about Becky’s moves. She was a real Dragonian now.

When we reached the infirmary, a nurse with black hair, looking goth, asked us to wait by the door while Constance tried to stabilize Becky.

My throat tightened as I saw how Constance placed a brace around her neck.

I felt like crying again.

“Who is the goth?”

“Nurse. She used to be a student at Dragonia. My aunt sort of took her in as her parents died that night the creepers came.”

“Sorry.”

We waited for a long time. Sammy mumbled plenty of times, and by her twentieth sigh, the nurse, Julia, popped her head out of the door. “You may come in, but only for a couple of minutes, okay?”

We both went in without saying a word.

We couldn’t do much but watch Becky lie on the bed with a bruised-up face. It looked as if a jealous boyfriend had beaten her.

This made me feel anger and other emotions I didn’t want to feel.

Her leg was splinted, and her arms were full of scrapes. Her one eye was swollen shut and had turned a greenish purple color.

My eyes stung, knowing if Blake didn’t do what he had, I would’ve known exactly what she felt like right now.

“She is going to be okay, Elena. George is going to feel pretty bad about what he did soon,” Constance said while making Becky as comfortable as possible.

“When will she wake up?”

“It’s up to her.”

“Chromatic dragons are so stupid,” Sammy hissed.

“Hey, your brother submitted.”

“My brother isn’t just Chromatic.”

“If you don’t mind, Becky needs her rest. You can come and check up on her later,” Constance said and smiled.

We went straight to our room, and I wondered what they had done with George. I hadn’t seen him in the infirmary with Becky. Unless he was fine, like Tabitha was. It was so unfair.

I wanted to leave, but Sammy stopped me.

“He can wait another few minutes. We need that talk, you promised.”

I sighed, and we went over to the couch and plopped on it. I told her what had happened to me when her brother and father had come to rescue us. I didn’t leave anything out, and I could see her eyes glistening with the fact that her brother had saved my life more than a couple of times.

“I saw his fire, but couldn’t put two and two together that he was actually the Rubicon. I mean, I learned about the wall and everything, that no human can exit. I would’ve died if he didn’t find me that night.”

She sniffed and grabbed my hand. “You didn’t.”

“I know, but it didn’t help one bit, because when George shifted, he brought back a lot of memories that I thought I’d dealt with.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Speak to my dad, maybe see Leo.”

“Do that, Elena. I mean, if George is going to hang with us, you can’t freeze every time his dragon form is going to come out.”

“I know.”

She gave me a hug as she told me everything about Becky’s ascension up to the time George struck her down with her abilities.

I wished I could’ve seen it and not had to deal with my panic.

A knock on the door made her growl, and I giggled.

“Sammy, I’m part of a Dent.”

“I know, but still. It’s like I can’t have you for a few minutes. You and Becky really became close the past week.”

“I didn’t say sign up for drama classes.”

“Hey, a dragon has to follow her passion, too. It’s not just riders and magic.”

“Go for yours, Sammy.” I got up as another knock came.

“We’re coming,” Sammy yelled. Not that Blake would hear it. The rooms were soundproof.

I rushed to and opened the door.

“About bloody time,” Blake sulked and came in. “Finally,” he said as he fell down on my bed and pulled me on top of him when I reached him.

I laughed as he held me tight. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m going, Dent love is too much for me at this moment.”

We chuckled as Blake lifted his hand and pumped the air.

She closed the door behind her, and his lips lingered on my head.

“I finally have you all to myself,” he said.

“You had me to yourself yesterday, too.”

“Yes, but the verdict wasn’t out yet if that week was going to change into a month. I’m glad she got her dragon. So what happened today at the claiming?”

“Fox.” I shook my head. “When George shifted, all the memories came back.”

“Maybe your dad isn’t the only one that should see Leo.”

I nodded, not looking at him.

“It’s not a sin to need help, Elena.”

“I know, but I really thought that I’d dealt with this.”

“You dealt with little, and they just put a lot more on your shoulders by forcing you to claim me.”

“If I knew it was you, things would’ve been different.”

He kissed me on top of my head.

“So, are you going to tell me what my dad wants from you?”

“It’s nothing, Elena. Really. Stop worrying about it, please.”

“What are you not telling me, Blake?”

“I will not fight with you about crap. Just take my word, it’s nothing. Your father has to let it go too.”

“Is it about us?”

“No, it’s not.” He was getting short with his answers, and I had no choice but to let it go.

He would tell me if it was serious, but I didn’t like the fact that I felt like he was hiding something from me.