Once upon a Dragon Gift (Once Upon a Dragon Series Book 4)

Lecturers came the same day George and Becky arrived with Sammy.

“I feel like the odd one out,” Sammy stated.

“Dad wanted you here under his eyes.”

We took them to their rooms and then on a tour of the castle that was going to be our home for the next we-don’t-know-how-many months.

“Is there a way we can see the Elementals?” Becky questioned.

“I’m sure it’s allowed. I’ll ask.”

Dad lent me his key for where they kept the Elementals, and I swiped it through the magnetic holder. The metal doors swished open onto a green island. The humidity was high, and the mist clung to my face.

Gigantic plants, meadows, and even a waterfall took up half of the room.

There were so many places they could hide.

King Albert had hired scientists to monitor and learn as much as they could from the wyrms. We learned through the doctors more about their anatomy.

There was a wind one that loved the simulator that controlled the breeze.

The one that was born from fire, loved to snuggle and just rub up against anything that was warm.

“Where are they?” Sammy asked.

I took her hand and told her to light her fire. The orange flame danced on her palm, and we waited.

Tiny footsteps scurried through the oasis.

“You hear that?” Becky asked George, and a grin appeared on his lips as he nodded.

The fire Elemental jumped from one of the trees onto Sammy and crawled up and laid in her hand, among the fire. It melted everyone’s hearts.

“He is so tiny,” my sister squealed.

“Well, they are still babies, Sammy,” I replied.

“Where are the others?” Becky wanted to know.

“Probably in their elements,” Lu replied and grabbed Tabitha’s hand, leading them to the waterfall.

We all followed.

Becky shrieked as the water wyrm swam in the pond by the waterfall.

She just walked in; George followed and picked him out of the water.

“Look at you,” she cooed. “It’s so cute.”

The wyrm clucked, which was similar to a dragon’s purr.

The fire one was still in Sammy’s hand, nestling in her fire. There was an earth one too; he loved to dig holes as long as my length.

They obviously had no names yet.

George grunted and clutched his head.

“You okay, bud?” I asked.

“Again?” Becky asked, looking worriedly at him.

“I’m fine, just a headache. They come and go,” he answered.

“It happened after the scrying spell Arianna did,” Becky remarked, still holding on to the water wyrm. “I knew it was a bad move.”

“Hey, we had to find Blake,” George said.

“I know. I’m just worried about you.”

“I’ll be okay.”

Her unsure smile didn’t ease the worry in my gut. She brought the water wyrm level with her face. “This one looks like a Kerby.”

“Becky!” I yelled.

“What?”

“Don’t name them.”

“I’m just saying. He looks like a Kerby.”

George laughed. “Hey, Kerbs.”

I shook my head. He was pathetic, but then again, I was like that with Elena too, and I knew if she was here, all of them would’ve had names, and I would’ve probably helped pick them.

We left the greenhouse around three.

“Blake,” King Albert called as I locked the door behind us with Dad’s key.

“The Elementals are so cute,” Sammy said to King Albert.

“We will talk again when they become the Saadedine.”

I laughed at the look on my sister’s face.

“I want you to meet your professors,” King Albert announced.

We followed him down the hallway and into the room they’d transformed into a classroom.

Three tutors waited at the window. Two of them had cups of tea in their hand, the last one stood with his hands in his pockets. He was quite large around the middle.

When they saw the king, the three of them bowed.

“Please, as you were,” King Albert said and looked at us. “I want you to meet your tutors. I believe they were Elena’s tutors too.”

Lu nodded.

“Professor Dumphreys,” the king called, and the woman with gray hair and neat specs that somehow balanced on a very long nose stepped forward. She had a weird tremble in her hands. She reminded me of a librarian. A very old librarian.

We all greeted her, and only I noticed her liquid-gold-colored eyes.

Professor Wick was next. He was lean and tall and the complete opposite of Professor Baileaf, who was the one with the rather large middle.

We shook their hands and made introductions.

“They will hand out a class schedule in the next few hours, and class will start first thing tomorrow morning,” King Albert stated.

“Wicked,” Lucian replied, and we got dismissed as King Albert still had to show them their rooms and help them settle in.

We went to the kitchen as my stomach grumbled. George and Lu made a joke, but then George’s stomach grumbled too, eliciting more laughter.

Chef Watson greeted all of us. He was somewhere in his mid-thirties, and King Albert had recently hired him as Jako wasn’t in the kitchen the way he used to be.

He put together a feast of sandwiches in no time, and we all chowed down.

My Cammy rang. I fished it out of my pocket as Annie’s name flashed on the screen. I answered as her hologram appeared. “Hey, Jelly-Bean.”

“You sitting down? Of course, you are sitting down.”

“Elena was there?”

“No. Brittany, a second year, ascended. Brian is her dragon, Blake. A fourth Dent.”

Five gazes flickered to Annie’s hologram.

“What? How sure are you?” I asked.

“It’s the only thing that everyone is talking about. I only heard it in class as one of the girls questioned it.”

“You sure Brian is her Dent?”

“Yeah, there were people who came to see Irene and Professor Pheizer confirm it. It’s quite alarming. Everyone is questioning why.”

“Okay, calm down. I’ll ask King Albert if he knows something.”

“Let me know, please?”

“I will.”

The call disconnected as I rushed to King Albert’s office. He was on a call with Master Longwei’s hologram, informing him about the fourth Dent. They were setting the date for next week. Dad stood against the wall with his arms folded.

“Let me know when, I want to be there,” King Albert said.

“I will. Albert, four Dents. How many more?” Master Longwei asked.

“You know that whatever is coming is setting them off. Let me know the date and time.”

The call got disconnected, and Master Longwei’s hologram disappeared.

The king looked at me. “Four Dents?”

“My cousin told me just now.”

“You know them?”

“Brian is the Sun Blast that went on that mission with them,” Dad answered.

“The cocky one that speaks in third person?” the king questioned, and I nodded.

King Albert took a huge breath and stared at his table. He was probably wondering why four Dents.

His gaze flickered to my father. “Get Adolph on the line. We’ve never had four Dents before. They must know something.”

Dad nodded and walked out of the office.

“You think it’s because of the Saadedine?”

“They wake up when danger is in the air, Blake. Whatever is coming, it’s big. Let’s just hope it’s not the Saadedine.”

“I’ve got a feeling it’s exactly them,” I stated.

“Your father told me. Thanks for sharing it with him.”

“Anything to not make it come to reality.”

“The problem is, he can find another pure soul.”

“Not as pure as you, my king.”

“Not according to my daughter.”

The quirk to my lip came involuntarily, and the king chuckled.

“It’s not her fault.”

“I know. I just miss her,” the king acknowledged.

“Buck up. If I can function more or less without her, you can too, my king.”

Laughter escaped King Albert’s lips. “Sorry, Blake. Doesn’t matter how much I try to ignore what you have with her, you are her Dent. How are you doing?”

“Feel off-balance, worry my ass off about so many things. Scared that I’m going to kill a wyvern that tries to make her fall in love with him.”

“I’ll help if they take any advantage of her through all of this.”

“I don’t think they will. If he tries to play her father, he has to fulfill the duties too.”

“Goran hasn’t been a father in his entire life, Blake. He wouldn’t know how.”

“She is the love of his life’s daughter. I know you don’t want to hear that, but he loved her just as much as you loved her.”

“The problem is, she doesn’t look like her mother.”

“She does, more than you know. She has her mother’s laughter and kind heart. She moves like her and has that same passion. You can’t ignore it. Neither would he.”

“Thank you, Blake. I needed that as I dream every night of him taking out his anger on her.”

“She would’ve been back a long time ago if that was the case. That I can assure you.”

“If she doesn’t remember…”

“She has your queen’s feistiness, my king. She would’ve been back.”

His lips curved. I left him with his thoughts and hoped that this time they would settle his worries just a tiny bit.

I laid that night in bed, trying to connect with Elena. All I saw was darkness. She was surrounded by the spell, and I couldn’t even penetrate it. I couldn’t tell her not to believe the lies, to come home, to the people who loved her the most.

She didn’t tap into her abilities as I didn’t feel the pain at all like I had that first day she disappeared.

It was so powerful that it knocked me out completely.

She wouldn’t even hear me as her mind, heart, and soul believed the lie. I would give anything to know what he had told her about me. Anything.

Probably that I was some sort of enemy, that I wanted her dead, used her skin as a rug.

My imagination was all I had along with my experience of what he’d made me believe not so long ago.

I closed my eyes as my memory of that night when Becky ascended flashed through my mind. She asked me the question about three Dents. How many Dents were going to form this era? Two was almost impossible, but four? It didn’t make any sense, not one bit.

Classes started, and Lucian kept hammering on the Saadedine. He wanted to know more about them, but we knew everything we could about them.

They were pretty useless alone.

That was what the oldest Moon Bolt dragon had said. The Elementals had one use and that was to be the Saadedine.

Or that was what Lucian had told me.

He also mentioned that Dragonia Academy was the burial ground for the Saadedines. All the stone dragons were what they became when their time was done. He truly believed that it was one of the things that helped by keeping the academy in the air. The magic around them was still foreign.

We had it so wrong, thinking that they were stones that would wake up when in need. A part of me believed that it was an old wives’ tale. In a way, they were.

King Albert didn’t joke when he said classes were going to be different.

Dumphrey’s or Shakes as I started calling her, taught us advanced magic. Even the dark ones, as Goran would not be kind just because we were young. He would bring whatever he had to get what he felt was owed to him.

Dad didn’t share the king’s and Shake’s enthusiasm teaching us. Especially when a spell backfired and George was a bit dark for a day.

Becky was a nervous wreck as he’d tried to kill her. But she was a brave girl.

When George came to, he put the same sigil on him that was on my chest. Branded it on him too. Idiot. He didn’t have healing powers, and his skin would have easily accepted the tattoo.

He refused to lose himself like that again.

On Friday, I left early in the morning for Dragonia. The others would follow later that afternoon. I refused to take the elevator.

We were all there for Brian and Brittany’s claim.

The Coliseum were packed, not a seat in the audience was open. There was still so much animosity between dragons and riders. Pity they had it all wrong, and I doubted if they were ever going to see the beauty behind it.

Then Brian exited and was cocky, like always. The dragons cheered as music started to play.

Brittany exited. The claim started.

She was only in her second year, but the way she wielded his fire, her fire, it scared me to death. I could only imagine what Elena would’ve bestowed on me in that ring if I didn’t submit.

It was hardly an hour before Brit had her dragon. They took her out on a gurney, stone cold. Brian woke up pretty fast and threw a bitch flip as Mia tried to calm him. His impasse stage was going to start.

I paid Irene a visit before heading back to Etan.

“Blake.” She smiled and gave me a hug. The hug broke as she told me to enter. “Have you heard anything from Elena?”

I shook my head. I told her what Goran was busy doing to her. “You see anything about this?”

She huffed. “No, Elena asked me the same thing. You took her foretelling away from me, Blake.”

“I had no choice; you wanted to tell, Irene.”

“The words are red.”

“What?”

“She fulfilled it. She took your place. It wasn’t her dying. She is losing herself because of her choice. She gave up her life. That is what the words meant. Her life as she knows it.”

Her words were red and relief washed over my entire being, untangling the knots in my shoulders and the coil in my muscles. She wasn’t going to die. None of us had to die.

“I get nightmares of what is coming. She asked me about that too, and I told her.”

“About what?”

“A dragon that Goran shouldn’t have.”

“A Thunderlight.”

She shook her head.

“The Saadedine?”

She shook her head again. “I’ve never seen one like this before. It’s like he summoned it. It was big and made from rocks. It’s not the Saadedine. Believe me, I’ve wracked my brain, read everything there is about the Saadedine.”

“And Goran had it?”

“The Saadedine was fighting against it, but it was weird.” She sounded so out of it. In a daze.

“What was weird?”

“It didn’t look like the other Saadedines. This one was different.”

“Different?”

“Garrison.”

“Garrison, what does that mean?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I have no idea. It could be the host. I don’t get a lot of visions about them. Like I said, it is strange as he doesn’t look like a normal Saadedine.”

“Is he weaker, stronger?”

“Very strong. It’s like an upgrade. Like the alpha of the Saadedines, like you are the alpha of the dragons.”

“The Rubicon of the Saadedines?”

She laughed nervously. “Sorry. I know it’s not a laughing matter.”

“Don’t apologize for your laughter. You should laugh. It’s good for your soul.”

“I thought tears were good for your soul?”

“No, tears clean your soul.”

“Ah, I see.”

I smiled. “Have you seen if she is okay?”

“I can’t see her, Blake. You know that.”

I nodded. “Thanks for telling me about this. At least I know we won’t lose the Saadedine, and we should look for someone name Garrison. I presume he is as dark as they come.”

“If he is going to be a good Saadedine, then yes.”

I got up and hugged her goodbye.

“She was just as lost as you are now, Blake. I saw it in her eyes. I knew she thought that there was no hope, but she found it. You will too.”

“Thanks.”

I walked to her door and ran down the steps.

I rushed to the infirmary to check up on the new pair. I stood at the door, as Brian kept yelling.

Mia jumped as she saw me. “Please, calm this idiot down. He acts like it’s the end of the world.”

“Calm down.” I used my alpha voice, and he calmed immediately.

“Don’t do that.”

“I know you are angry. I know you don’t understand any of it, but it’s not a spell, and it’s not slavery. Welcome to the club. Be glad you have yours with you.”

“Fuck off.”

The third person was gone now, and it was only Brian and me.

I laughed at him and shrugged at Mia.

“After you wake up from your Dent, come join us at the castle; we learn crazy things.”

“Go fuck yourself, Blake.”

Mia pushed me. “Just go, you make it worse.”

I rushed to meet King Albert and almost walked into George.

“Here you are. King Albert wants us to go back.”

“I’ll meet you at the castle later.”

“You spoke to Irene?”

“I did. I have loads to tell you.”

He nodded as I started to disrobe on the outskirts of the forest and jumped to the sky.

In three flaps, I was high in the air and on my way back to Etan.

That night, all of them came to my room. I told them what Irene had told me.

“She told Elena about a stone dragon too,” Lu confirmed.

“How the fuck are we going to defeat a stone dragon?” George wanted to know.

“Garrison.”

Becky gasped and looked at George. “I told you,” she yelled at George.

“What?” I asked.

“George has been saying that name in his sleep for the past week. Whenever I ask him who Garrison is, he stares at me as if I have two heads.”

“You dream about a Garrison, George?” Lu made a joke.

“Haha, no. I don’t dream anything. Well, I dream about Becky, but that is it.”

“Your headaches?” I suggested. “It’s not because of the scry spell gone wrong. It awakened your gift, George. The headaches are the beginning of it.”

“How do you know?”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Because mine released all at once with Goran’s spell.”

“You saw the future?”

“No, I see shit. But my electricity is strong.”

Everyone laughed.

“Tabitha, you think you can find anything on a Garrison?”

“You gave me my sight back, you bet your ass I’m going to find something on that person. Why, who is he?”

“Irene thinks he is the host of the Saadedine.”

“The Saadedine is going to fight with us?” Lu asked.

“We are not going to lose him. Meaning that we will succeed with Elena.”

“Of course, we will. I don’t doubt that for a second,” Lu encouraged.

They all left my room while Lu stayed behind.

“There are more that you are not telling us.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I saw it on Elena’s face too after she had that same talk with Irene and her stone dragon.”

“She said she got the idea that Goran had summoned it.”

“Sounds like him.”

“He has a dragon, Lu; what if he is going to enhance her?”

Lucian’s eyes grew wider. “I know he is messed up, Blake, but I doubt that he would do that.”

“You don’t know how twisted he is. He would do that to get back at King Albert, at me, for screwing up his plans.”

“You can’t think like that. He’ll summon it, but we will get Elena back. He will become desperate, and he will summon it.”

“I hope you are right.”

“I know I am, because I have all the faith in you, Blake.” He touched my shoulder. He left my room a few minutes after that.

I fell down on my bed, staring at the ceiling. When I closed my eyes, it was only darkness. Nothing else. I guessed the Ancients had more things to worry about than the Dents, just like they had about the wyverns.