I began to sweat and my heart was beating triple time with fear. I couldn’t seem to get a deep enough breath and my whole body started shaking, yet I was frozen to the spot. I couldn’t move even if I had thought it was safe—which it absolutely wasn’t. I was stuck there and the Drake’s breath was hot against my cheek—so hot it evaporated the tears that had begun to leak from my eyes.
When Saint spoke again, his voice had an odd, double echo, as though someone or something else was speaking through him. It was deeper too, a menacing growl. His Drake said only two words:
“GET OUT.”
At once I felt a skittering in my ear and then the feeling of something flowing out of it. It was the same sensation you get when you’ve been swimming and have gotten water in your ear and it finally pours out after ages of being trapped in there. A cool trickling sensation and then it was over.
Saint withdrew and Kaitlyn gave a little squeal and jumped backwards. Looking down, I saw something silvery streaking across the grey flagstones of the floor.
“Kill it! Stomp on it!” Megan exclaimed but Bran shouted,
“No—leave it!”
“Why?” Griffin demanded, frowning.
“Because, it will go back to Morganna. She made the original bargain with it and so she is the one who is responsible for fulfilling it now,” he explained.
I began to grin.
“Meaning it will crawl into her ear?”
“Exactly.” Bran nodded grimly. “Which is exactly what she deserves.”
“I hope she enjoys speaking in really bad poetry,” I said. Then I realized something. “Hey—I didn’t have to rhyme just now! This is wonderful!”
“Yay! You’re cured!”
“It’s gone!”
Megan and Kaitlyn both grabbed me and the three of us danced around like wild things, celebrating my freedom.
“Thank you,” I said at last, breathless with laughter as I turned to Saint. “It was really scary being that close to your Drake but thank you—he really got the job done!”
Saint only nodded. He had closed his eyes and I noticed he was still holding hands with Avery—gripping so tightly both their knuckles were white.
Avery was looking at him, obviously concerned.
“Hey, are you all right, roomie?” he asked in a low voice.
Saint shook his head and took a deep breath.
“He doesn’t want…to go back,” he said at last in a strangled tone. “My Drake—he is fighting to escape.”
19
At this, Ari and Kaitlyn both ran to Saint and put their hands on his shoulders.
“Cousin, listen—I will have my Drake speak to yours,” Ari said urgently. “Maybe he can reason with him.”
“There is no reasoning with the darkness inside me—no reasoning with the Blood Drake,” Saint said hoarsely, but he didn’t try to shake off their hands.
“Ladies, I think it best if all of us without a Drake inside, go into one of the side bedrooms,” Griffin said quickly. “It will be safer to be out of the common area if Santiago should lose control.”
“But we can’t leave Avery!” Megan exclaimed.
“Go!” Avery’s voice was tight with fear but he was still standing there holding hands with Saint. “I’ll be fine—Emma, you and Megan get into the dorm where it’s safe. Well, safer anyway,” he amended.
We all ran to the girls’ dorm on the right side of the room and got inside, but I couldn’t help peeking out once we were all safely away—I had to know what was happening. After all, this was all because of me.
“You must go back,” Ari was saying—or his Drake was, anyway. It was speaking in a low, intense voice and I had the feeling it was using the Drake language. I shouldn’t have been able to understand it but since Ari was touching Saint and Saint and Avery were still holding hands, the translation spell was still working.
“I do not wish to.” The voice coming out of Saint was that same, dark, frightening voice I had heard before when his Drake ordered the skink out of my ear. The sound of it sent shivers down my spine—was it any wonder the skink had run away as fast as it could when it heard that voice? I thought not.
“I wish to meet…I wish to know…” Saint’s Drake rumbled.
“Meet who? Know who?” Kaitlyn asked anxiously.
Saint didn’t answer and neither did his Drake but the burning red eyes were pinned on Avery who was standing there with his chin lifted and his eyes steady, though it was clear he was scared to death.
“Later,” Ari’s Drake said. “Not here—not now. There is no room.”
The burning eyes left Avery’s face and flickered around the common area. It was a nice size for five to ten people to hang out in, but not nearly big enough for a ten or twelve-ton dragon.
“Later,” Ari’s Drake said again. “You must be patient. I waited weeks and months to meet my L’lorna.”