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

Around dinner, everyone was quiet. Their chins dipped as they ate. George scraped around on his plate. Not hungry.

Becky had that worried furrow between her eyes, staring at him.

Lucian must have told them about what we spoke about, and Garrison became a topic we didn’t broach again for the time being.

They left it alone. Didn’t ask questions. It was how I figured they must have spoken about it behind my back.

Not even Adolph pushed. He was working with Lakon on different spells.

It made me feel like shit and a huge coward.

The next week, we fell into our normal daily routine.

As the days passed and the Dents’ dual spells worked, the gap of missing Elena grew bigger.

I went to bed, high on emotions, and felt like a failure because of Garrison. I didn’t even know what the idiot would look like, and I wanted to punch his face—well, my face.

It wasn’t just my destiny, but all of theirs. We all played a role in this one, but the stakes were too high.

I tried to connect with Elena and must have drifted away, feeling the cold air on my face.

I woke up with an alarm screeching in my ear, and I jumped out of bed, rushing out my door and hammering on the first door in front of me.

My scales tingled, hoping that it was Elena.

I didn’t take the stairs, but jumped over the railing and landed in the foyer.

“Elena, don’t!” King Albert yelled as she opened her mouth to release her electricity. I pushed King Albert out of the way and got a jolt of her purple thunder.

“Blake!”

“Stay back,” I said as I got up and faced her. “Stop this.”

“You,” she hissed in English. Dragons didn’t speak English; they spoke Latin. What was this?

My hand stretched out to her purple figure. “Listen to me. Goran is not your father. He has you under a tight spell.”

“He said you would say anything,” she growled.

“Because he knows it the truth. A few months ago, it was me. You came to look for me.”

“Elena,” Sammy yelled.

“Back off, Sammy!” I shouted in response, not taking my eyes off the purple dragon in front of me.

She looked around, trying to find a way to escape.

“You are not leaving.”

“Get away from me.”

Her demand still had an effect on me, and I screamed as I tried to push through it.

“Blake, let her go,” Dad ordered.

“Never!” I screamed and pushed through her words. I grabbed a few of her horns and pulled myself on top of her.

“Get off, you rodent!”

“No, it’s you and me, sweetheart. Til infinity,” I hissed, but I knew the words meant absolutely nothing to her.

She tried to get me off her back as she slammed against the walls, trying to break her way out of there.

“Yield,” I instructed.

“I can’t yield. I’m not as pathetic as you. I refuse to yield.”

“Then I’ll make you yield if it’s the only way to get you back.”

I grabbed her ears, and she growled. I could hear her heart. She was scared, but there was no sphere around her neck. Guess we had that in common.

I pulled all of my weight to the left and spoke a gravity spell that would push her over. We fell to the ground.

She flung her head around and released her lightning.

“Blake, watch out for her lightning,” Dad shouted at the same time. I could feel the vibration zooming past my skin as I barely ducked the wave of her bolt.

My abilities wouldn’t hurt her, and I tried to subdue her with my own lightning. I put my palm against her body and jolted a shock of my lightning through her.

She growled once more.

“Yield,” I yelled again, and I could feel that she was on the verge of submitting. Her heart exploded the way it beat, and there was a wave of energy ready to meet mine. Her body changed as tears blurred my gaze, and then everyone cheered. She was with us again.

Her naked human form had taken the place of her dragon one as she stared at me.

Something was wrong, as fear was still clear on her face. It wasn’t love or relief.

“Elena?” I asked.

She doubled over and grunted, clutching her stomach.

“Get a robe,” King Albert yelled.

“Elena,” I hollered and grabbed her up in my arms.

“Please, don’t kill me.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I’ll never kill you. I love you.”

Her brows furrowed as she stared at me. The same disappointment mixed with confusion glistened in her green eyes.

The spell wasn’t breaking. Why was the spell not breaking?

Her eyebrows knitted. Was she starting to remember me? “Daniel?”

Daniel?

“No, he is lying to you. I’m Blake, not Daniel.” There was a flaw, something he couldn’t change. There always had been a flaw. My eyes.

She shook her head and crawled away as she doubled over again.

“Sweetheart,” King Albert crouched, and she blasted him away from her with a spell. He skidded over the tiled floor and landed against the wall. I rushed to her side again, trying to subdue her.

“Blake, what is going on?” Lucian yelled.

“I don’t know, it’s not working.”

She collapsed in my arms and grunted more. I couldn’t take away her pain.

“Fuck,” I shouted as Goran’s call rang in my ear.

“Lu!” I growled, as all the dragons covered their ears.

“Becky, Brit,” he yelled as he rushed down the stairs. He called the human guards too, and I held on for dear life. Goran would not get her this time.

“I don’t want to die,” she begged me.

“I won’t kill you. I’m trying to save you. It’s all lies.”

“Blake!” Lu held on to me as the same wind blew, wanting her back.

“Lu, I’m not letting her go.”

“She is busy dying.”

“What?”

“Let her go, Blake. Goran will heal her,” King Albert said.

“No.”

“She will die. Open your eyes,” the king pleaded as he was out of the blast of the wind.

“Son, I know it’s hard, but Albert is right. Let her go,” Dad said, still covering his one ear. “We will find her, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

I screamed out in frustration as the tears blurred my vision.

“Blake, please,” Jako begged. I didn’t know he was even here. Must have come when the siren of the palace went off.

I looked down at Elena. I couldn’t believe I had to let her go.

“I don’t want to die,” she spoke in a tired voice.

A growl rumbled from my stomach. “I’m sorry. I love you.” My lips smacked on hers, and I loosened my grip around her. I didn’t watch her go back into the vortex. A scream pulled from me and a pair of muscular arms wrapped around me. By the scent that reached my nose, I knew it was Lu.

It didn’t work. How the fuck was I going to break this spell?