Firebolt

Chapter 13

ON THURSDAY MORNING, the day of Becky claiming George, I woke up by the slamming of the bathroom door. Sammy sat on her bed and glared vehemently in the direction of the bathroom.

“Is everything okay?” I asked in a croaky voice.

“Whatever you do, don't look in that one's direction.” Sammy pointed to the bathroom door.

“You think it's got to do with the claim?”

“I think it's got more to do with her last session with Lucian this morning. She looked highly pissed off when she stormed in.”

Becky came out of the bathroom as we were talking and yanked her dresser drawer open.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I hated to see her like this.

“Yes,” she said, as if she was about to take an exam, instead of fighting a dragon. T-shirts flew out of her drawer as she searched for something.

Sammy and I just stared at each other, perplexed.

“Becky, what's wrong? You seem ... upset.” Sammy sounded as if she’d struggled to find the right word.

“I'm fine.” She turned around and sighed. “Lucian has taught me well.” Her voice changed, sliding into deep sarcasm. So, Sammy was right about Lucian being the culprit behind Becky's bad mood.

“Spill!” Sammy demanded.

Becky curled her lip. “He's a 'slave driving demon' when it comes to fighting. I mean, the guy is good with a sword in his hands, but he has no sense of when he needs to stop. He's driving me insane!”

“What?” Sammy said.

“Lucian McKenzie, my Lucian?” It felt great saying that.

“You heard me.” She plunged down on her bed with a pair of socks in her hand. “You only know his sweet side, Elena. He's head over heels for you.”

“Well I hope so. Since he's been training you, I hardly see him,” I said, irritation filling my voice.

“I'm sure he'll spend all his time with you after today. You know he told his parents that he won't be going home over weekends anymore,” Becky said arching her eyebrows.

“Get out of here,” Sammy screamed excitedly while my stomach was doing a back flip.

“It's the truth.”

“Do you guys think he told them about me?” I asked. My gut turned into a big knot.

“Who cares? He's going to stay.” Sammy sounded happy on my behalf.

I had to admit, as much as I loved to spend more time with Lucian over weekends, a part of me panicked when I thought about his parents. I mean they were ruling a country for crying out loud. What if they have certain expectations of me? I swallowed hard. Did they know I was the girl with the dragon father? What if they didn’t approve?

I anxiously looked for Lucian during breakfast, but he was nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse he was constantly on my mind, so I had no idea what the professors were talking about during their lectures.

At lunch, we had pasta for the zillionth time. Riley had gotten most of the riddles lately.

“Elena, please, I'm begging you, if it's going to be pasta tomorrow again, I'm going to puke,” Sammy complained, begging me to solve the day’s riddle.

I giggled and walked over to the Chef's board to see what he had in store for us today.

“All about, but cannot be seen. Can be captured but cannot be held. Can be heard but have no throat, what am I?” I tried to think. Usually the answer just popped into my head, but today was completely different. I felt someone standing behind me. When she started to tap her foot, I assumed she wanted to see the riddle. I turned around and Arianna, princess of Areeth, was all up in my face.