She hugged me tightly against her chest and murmured words of comfort into my hair. When the bawling reduced to dry heaves yet again, Constance spoke cautiously. “I'm sorry to ask you this, Elena, but did your father ever mention the mark of the Dragonians?”
My head snapped up, and I stared at Constance with huge eyes. “The what?”
“Your mark is of true significance on this side,” she continued. “One as dark as yours, well, let's just say that dragon children don't bear something that special.”
A freak you mean. I shook my head.
Everything twirled inside my mind, making me dizzy. Touching my cheeks, and sliding my hands to the back of my neck, I leaned against the pillow. I stared at the ceiling with a fan spinning really fast until it blurred out, into nothing. Dad's gone. I’ll never see him again. “I shouldn't have left him that night.” I spoke to the ceiling until I broke down again. I didn’t even say goodbye.
“Don't blame yourself, Elena.” Constance said, offering me only comfort; no words could erase the pain and guilt.
She caressed my arm and waited patiently for me to finish processing.
“Wait, if Dad was a dragon, am I—” I said in a panic, attempting to push myself back up to a sitting position.
“No.” She giggled, and helped me back down onto the bed. Sorry, Constance mouthed and took a deep breath. “You should've known by now if you were a dragon. I think that’s enough for one night, don't you?”
I glanced at the clock on the wall. The arms showed three o'clock and by the silence of everything, I guessed it was a.m.
I nodded slowly, positioning my head back onto the soft pillow. Our conversation had ended.
Chapter Three
I pressed the green button near my head, and warm soft pink water came splashing from the metal nozzle. It smelled like roses, and a sense of calm washed over me.
I had never been in a shower quite like this one, until a couple of days ago. Grecian marble seats lined the walls with mosaic tiles placed in delicate and intricate patterns on the floor. The water cleared and rinsed my body mentally and physically. A more potent aroma of roses and water, softer than before, caressed my skin, creating small waves across my still-bruised flesh. My skin had begun to flush in the heat making my now greenish, yellow bruises darker and more pronounced.
The tension in my muscles and the pounding inside my head started to evaporate as the heat and smells enveloped me. At the moment these showers were the highlight of every day.
I got lost in the string of thoughts, swirling inside my head like an unrelenting vortex.
I’d always wondered about Dad’s stories and if Peageia was really located inside the Bermuda Triangle. A part of me always felt that Dad’s stories could be real. I just never imagined it was this real. One of the things I do remember that Paegeia was a realm hidden from the human world behind an enchanted wall; a realm where Dragons and magic existed.
Constance explained that they’d had to conjure the wall to protect magic from people; dark, selfish people who wanted to harness and abuse the magic for themselves. It was only after the wall was erected that they realized just the dragons could cross it. Once a human entered Paegeia, they could never leave. I looked at it like buying a one-way ticket to Neverland. The only thing that worried me was that Dad must have told me about this, but why I couldn't remember it raised more questions.
As the water continued to rush over me, I struggled to accept Dad's death. A small part of me still felt responsible for it. His death, and the reality that dragons were real, was the reason I had spent nearly five days sequestered inside this infirmary.
I hated hospitals, more than I hated moving, but Constance was really kind. She and Julia, her assistant, had been my only company ever since I arrived here. Master Longwei, the headmaster of Dragonia, which this infirmary was located, also popped in from time to time to check on my recovery.
His wise advice: If I wanted to keep my sanity, I had to face whatever was out there. Today, I decided reluctantly to take that step.
I didn't want to end up in the loony bin just because I couldn't accept what was real, even though magic and dragons belonged only in Fairy tales.
Fortunately, there was a silver lining around this dark cloud. My birthmark.
Back home, a mark like mine was common. A lot of people had them. Doctors diagnosed these marks as pigment defects.
My version was an ugly dark splat above my knee that kept me from wearing shorts even in the height of summer. In Paegeia, it was something significant. The people saw it as an honor and, according to Julia, most humans would kill for one as dark as mine. What it really meant, I still hadn’t figured out, but it was my ticket straight into Dragonia Academy.
I took a deep breath and climbed out of the shower. Goose pimples broke out over my flesh as the cool air made contact with my warm body. I quickly grabbed a large, white towel positioned on a hook next to the shower and tried to retain some of the shower’s warmth.
“Elena, you okay?” Constance knocked softly on the door.
“Just give me a minute,” I yelled as I towel-dried my long hair. The shower had felt great and the clothes that Master Longwei had given me fit like a glove.
A quick glance at the price tags, before ripping them off, revealed the name “Twigs” written in big bold letters. Master Longwei had dropped them off last night when he’d come to check on me. The jeans were the kind I always wanted: it had the effect of being washed too many times, which made it look really old. The emerald-green tee went well with the color of my eyes, and the flip-flops were the perfect size.
How had he known what size to get? With his fashion sense, I was lucky to receive an outfit this hip.
Dad had never bought me the things I really wanted. It was always in and out of stores with him, too quickly to try anything on so my clothes always ended up being too small or too large. My throat tightened up at the memory. I swallowed my tears, pushing him to the back of my mind. I was done with crying.
I pulled my almost dry hair back into a high ponytail, and took another deep breath before opening the door.
“Don't you look beautiful.” Constance's echo bounced off the walls around me. Next to her stood Julia, a striking woman who put even Constance’s ethereal beauty to shame. She was all bronzed skin and soft curves, accented by a mane of long, wavy brown hair and large almond-shaped eyes. When she saw me, Julia gasped with joy, giving me the confidence I needed to leave the bathroom. I knew I looked pretty good considering the circumstances of my arrival and, of course, the bruises.
“Are you ready?” Constance asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I mused. “Besides, I will go nuts if I have to stay here another day.”
Constance pulled me into a tight hug, crushing me against her stethoscope. “If you need anything, I’m right here,” she said, whispering softly into my ear. “Please don't be a stranger.”
“And she doesn't mean by breaking a leg,” Julia said with a mischievous glint in her eye.
“I could still end up losing my mind, and then you’ll be stuck with me forever,” I countered.
“Nonsense, you’re a tough cookie.” Constance smiled warmly.
“I’m going to miss you,” I said, feeling the emotions beginning to clog in my throat.
Julia leaned closer and grabbed me around the neck. “Believe it or not, I’m going to miss you too. It's too quiet here sometimes.”