“Nothing, just that Elena has lost her marbles. Oh, and that Arianna almost killed her with a moon spell.” Becky gave her a very sarcastic four-one-one.
“She did what!”
“That's nothing. Elena wants to face her again next week.”
“That biatch. Elena, are you insane?” Sammy shrieked.
“It’s not that bad. Becky is a big drama queen,” I said, giving Becky a look.
“Sweetheart, you almost died.” Lucian was serious again, and Sammy just gawked at me.
“Elena, a moon spell is not to be taken lightly. She can get expelled for that.” Sammy's tone was exactly the same as Lucian's.
“Well, that is nice to know.” I smiled softly.
Both the girls just looked at me with wide eyes, and Lucian squinted at me. “I’m not the blackmail type, but if I have to use it, I will. I'm sure daddy would just love it if his little princess got expelled.”
Lucian finally chuckled. “You are spending way too much time with Becky and Sammy.”
“Hey,” Becky said, and Sammy threw a pillow at him. He caught it. His reflexes were wicked. Guess the girls weren’t the only two that rubbed off on me.
“Well,I’ve got to go. I’m sure tomorrow will go much better. Cheng is hardly someone that will feel the need to use a moon spell.” He kissed me quickly and walked to the door.
“Good bye, Lucian,” the girls sang in unison, which made him blush with a super cute smile. I walked with him to the door.
“Thanks for being there,” I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible.
“I will always be there, Elena. I want you to know that.”
I nodded, letting him know I knew.
“Just be careful next time, please,” he begged, and I was in his arms again. He deserved a long passionate kiss for really being my knight in shining armor.
We said goodbye and I went back into the room.
“She really used a moon spell on you?” Sammy asked, and I nodded. “How does it feel?”
“Sucks big time. I thought I was a goner for sure.” I shivered as I remembered the suffocating feeling again. “Wait, neither of you has ever gotten hit with a moon spell?”
“They don't work on dragons,” Sammy said.
“Moon spells only get covered in the third year,” Becky interrupted. “I guess she must be very good if she can cast a moon spell already.”
“See, that’s why I need her.”
“Elena, you have to be careful,” she warned.
“She told Lucian that he used to do it too.” I tried to change the subject away from me. “Do we have to defend ourselves in some sort of exam?”
“It only takes place at the end of the year. Lucian cast something similar in his second year. It was in all the magazines. It’s called a Riptide, but not as powerful.” Sammy still looked worried, or maybe she was wondering how it was possible that I was still alive.
“Can he be more perfect,” I said out loud, and fell backwards on my bed just imagining him in his exam last year. I felt sorry for his opponent. Both the girls laughed. "So what is it we have to do for the exams?" I asked after a couple of minutes.
“You need to know all eleven protection spells and need to cast at least three.” Becky sat down on the edge of my bed and took one of my pillows.
I sighed. They were right, I was only kidding myself. I needed a miracle to graduate with this year's class.
The conversation changed to Becky and her new classes with George. It all sounded extremely interesting, especially the one that taught her everything about her ability.
George was still the same though. They were supposed to train together and learn new kinds of magic that was meant for both of them.
During dinner, I tried to ignore Arianna as her group laughed and nodded towards me. Becky and Sammy wanted to lose their patience and almost said something.
“Don't. It will only satisfy her more knowing that it bothers us.” I put my hand softly on Becky's. She bit hard on her lip, trying not to chirp something over her shoulder, and took a deep breath.
“She's so not worth it.” She repeated that a couple times softly until she calmed down.
Lucian wasn't there, and Ihated that I wasn’t going to be able to tell him goodnight.
I went to bed not knowing what to expect with Cheng. He was going to help me make some sense out of Paegeia's history. It was such a boring subject. For the love of blueberries,why couldn’t people just leave things in the past?
That night wasn't any different. As I drifted off to sleep, the lady appeared again, and I was relieved when Becky's clock went off the next morning.
Chapter Sixteen
At three, I went to the cafeteria to meet Cheng. Today was my first History lesson, and I was nervous, but not as nervous as I had been when I was going to meet Arianna. Scanning the room, I noticed a group of four boys huddled around one of the tables. Not one of them resembled the description Sammy had given me earlier of Cheng, and I became discouraged. Suddenly a tall figure appeared from behind a Buddha statue. He wasn't oriental, as I imagined he would be, and looked like he was a true ethnic mix.
“You must be Elena. I'm Cheng,” he said, and held out his hand for me to shake. I noticed the bronze glint in his hair, realizing what he was.
“You’re a dragon?” I asked.
“Busted.” Holding out his hands in mock surrender, his smile reached up to his eyes, changing his entire face.I couldn’t help but to smile back at him, it was infectious. “I hope that it's not going to make you uncomfortable.”
I shook my head. I was used to dragons now. Hell, I was sharing a room with one.
“Good, shall we take a walk?” He led the way, taking me along the same route that Lucian had last week. We went to the stables and found Ginger standing outside in the pen, lazily eating grass. Cheng took out a handful of sugar cubes from his pocket and started calling her by clicking his tongue. He stroked her gently as she nibbled at the sugar cubes in his palms.
“Horses like dragons?” I asked, shocked at how calm she behaved.
“No, only the Metallic ones,” he said in a very soothing tone.
“What is it about horses that you love?”
“They’re such graceful creatures, Elena. I do believe that they have a soul too. The way some humans use them to get over their fears tells me that they are teachers just like us, in their own special way,” he said as he stroked her mane.
“Yeah, there's something soothing about them,” I agreed, and remembered my trip with Lucian.
“I know history can be boring, but you're looking at it the wrong way. Without history, we would not know where we came from or what direction to go,” he said. He blew gently into Ginger’s mouth. Her lips vibrated and she stomped her feet, neighing.
“What are you doing?” I giggled.
“I'm making her used to my smell. It's a small human trick, the Sioux Tribe used to believe that blowing in their faces makes them used to your smell. I hope it's true, otherwise I just looked like an idiot.”
I laughed. “So what is it that makes history so exciting?”
“What are they teaching you?”
“Oh, very boring stuff about medieval times.”
“You don't like the medieval times?” he asked as we carried on walking toward the Coliseum.
“Not really. They were cruel and saw dragons as the enemy, right?”
“Yes, it was. I'm really lucky to be born during King Albert's time.”
“Why were they so afraid of the dragons?”
“It was mostly the Chromatic dragons that gave them reasons to fear us. There was no enchanted wall back then and Paegeia was free for everyone to visit. People passed fluidly through the barrier. The Metallic dragons, like me, were wise to hide. They knew that the humans would never trust dragons, so they disguised themselves as the very creatures who wanted to destroy them. At that stage, it was still a dragon secret. I can just imagine how hard it was for them to watch their kind being slaughtered like monsters. When King Alexander ascended the throne, with the help of a great sorcerer, the wall was erected to protect magic from the humans on the other side who wanted to abuse it.”