I had to admit, the term “to dent” was still confusing. I mean George hated Becky, and now they expected him to do the opposite. It didn't make sense.
“Let's go, Elena.” Sammy grabbed my arm when George finally shifted back into his normal body. They had to cover him with a blanket because he was butt naked. He was carried out on a stretcher too, but he wasn't nearly in the physical state Becky was in.
“Where are we going?”
“To go and see how Becky’s doing. I can't believe George just did that!”
I waved at Lucian, since Sammy didn't give me time to say goodbye with a kiss. He waved back with a gorgeous smile, which made my stomach flip again.
Sammy walked so fast that I struggled to keep up. I almost had to run to keep her pace. 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, Julia asked us to wait by the door while Constance tried to stabilize Becky.
My throat tightened as I saw how Constance placed a neck brace around her neck.
“Can a Dragonian die from this?” I asked, biting my nails while staring at Becky's still body on the bed.
“I've never seen one die. Constance was close, but anything's possible.”
I felt like crying again.
I didn't want to claim a dragon, and I started to doubt Master Longwei's theory about my dark mark too. I didn't belong here. I would never have the amount of courage to do what Becky just did.
“Stop doing that.” Sammy tapped my hand with hers, and I realized that I was still nibbling on my nails. I only did it when I was really nervous.
We waited for a long time. Sammy mumbled plenty of times, and by her twentieth sigh, 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 she had been beaten by a jealous boyfriend.
It 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 started to sting.
"She is going to be okay, Elena, and believe me; George is going to feel pretty bad about what he did soon." Constance tried to comfort me while making Becky as comfortable as possible.
"When will she wake up?"
"It's up to her."
"Chromatic dragons are so stupid," Sammy hissed.
"If you don't mind, Becky needs her rest. You can come and check up on her later if you want," Constance said, and smiled. It was our cue to leave.
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.
Once we were settled, Sammy took a long bath. She always felt terrible whenever a dragon did something horrible to humans and now that it was her best friend, she must felt even worse.
Later that night, we went back to check up on her. This time, thankfully, she was awake. "Where is that coward?" she said with venom in her voice.
"Becky, take it easy," Constance said in an ordering tone. She tried to get Becky to lie back down.
"Take it easy?" she hissed. "I was out for... I don't know how long. He's a coward." She grabbed her ribs in obvious pain when she moved too fast.
"You're not healed. Just give it a couple of hours." Constance spoke in a harsh voice and told us to leave.
"That girl is not happy," Sammy remarked as we started to leave.
"I'm just glad she woke up." I remembered the time I had spent almost a whole week in the infirmary and shuddered.
I struggled to sleep that night and when I finally fell into a deep slumber, I was rewarded with the same dream that had haunted me since my arrival.
I woke up around four AM, hot and sweating, and opened the window to clear my head. The fresh air blew gently into our room as I reflected on all the things that had changed in such a short period of time. A lot of things played in my head. Becky was one, and I tried to make sense of how George was magically going to like her. My dad saving my life was something that was constantly on my mind, making everything jumbled. What did the Moon Bolt want from us, and why did he kill Dad? What did Dadwant to tell Matt that was so important he couldn’t do it over the phone? Why did I have a dark birthmark when it wasn't meant for dragon children? And why did they think I was going to show them great things? It put so much pressure on me; sometimes I just wanted to scream. What was I going to do about Lucian? I couldn't go back to being just friends again. I loved being with him, so Arianna’s words shouldn’t matter. I didn’t care if I was normal or not, I couldn’t imagine my life without Lucian in it.
Our room started to turn a bit lighter as the sun slowly rose over the horizon. I looked outside my window and saw the first rays of sun peek over the mountains in the distance. For a few blessed moments, I forgot about all of my unanswered questions. There was something truly amazing about how the world woke up. For the first time ever I watched the sunrise and felt completely at peace.
Chapter Fourteen
Today was a nightmare. With Becky still stuck in the infirmary, classes were ten times worse. I never realized how vital her quick explanations about foreign words were to keep me on track.
In Art of War, Professor Mia gave me Colin, Becky's old sparring partner, to fight against. I was less than thrilled. He was brutal, and I saw my ass a million times in the first half hour. My arms were covered with bruises and scrapes that burned like hell. It looked as if I had fought an entire army.
Every single muscle ached and felt drained.
To make things worse, Lucian was nowhere to be found. Arianna made me feel so insecure,and I hoped with all my heart that she hadn’t gotten to him too. I knew I should have stopped seeing him, but it was too late. My feelings for him had grown overnight, and I didn't know how I would possibly cope without him. I became worried, and I knew something was wrong during lunchtime when he was still MIA.
After class, I fell on my bed, completely defeated. When I woke up, Becky sat on her bed chatting with Sammy. The bruises around her eyes were completely gone, and she appeared to be fine.
“What's up, girl, did you miss me?” She grabbed her side when she moved too fast trying to get up off the bed.
“Don't, just take it easy.” Sammy helped Becky onto her feet.
“Can we go to dinner now?” Becky said excitedly.
“You sure you up for it? We can bring you something back,” Sammy said, concerned.
“No, Constance said the faster I get on my feet, the better.”
In the cafeteria, everyone was congratulating her. She really loved all the attention, and I just shook my head. Lucian was still nowhere to be found, and by now, I was really worried.
We went to bed around ten, after Becky told us all about the fight from her point of view. I was glued to her lips as she told me the minute the scene changed, the entire crowd disappeared. It was only her and George somewhere in the dessert.
The next morning, we woke up an hour earlier to give us plenty of time to help Becky get ready too. I was worried about Lucian, but kept it to myself.
“Are you sure you are ready for classes?” Sammy asked. She reminded me of a mother hen, the way she fussed over Becky.
“I better be, otherwise George will get a lightning bolt against the head.”
We laughed. It took a long time to dress her, leaving us less time than usual to get ready. Sammy took a shower, while I brushed my hair and tied it up in a smooth ponytail.