Once Upon a Dragon Heart (Once Upon a Dragon Series Book 2)
Once Upon a Dragon Heart: Chapter 2

My eyes fluttered open to dark roast filling my nose. Blake crouched in front of my bed with a cup of steaming coffee in his hands.

“You really know how to wake up a girl.”

A chuckle stuttered its way out of his lips before he planted them on my head. “Morning, Princess.”

A grunt puffed from me.

“What? You are my princess, and the entire Paegeia’s,” he whispered the last part.

I shuffled up into a sitting position and took my cup of coffee from him.

“You need to get ready. We have to be at the museum around nine.”

“Why that early?”

“I want to take you through the museum first, before our fitting.”

“Fitting?”

“They are going to measure you, scan you, print you. It’s very boring.”

“Why?”

“To put you in that museum forever. You are a Malone. It needs to sink in.”

“About that?”

His shoulders dropped. “Not yet, please?”

“Then when?”

“I’ll tell you when.”

“Is it your dad?”

“No, it’s something else. Trust me, please?”

I nodded. He never disappointed me. The previous times weren’t on him, they were my mistakes.

He got up and rushed to the door. “Get ready.”

“Yes, boss.”

His chuckle followed him as he closed the door. I sipped my coffee and got dressed to grab something to eat before the museum. When I got downstairs, Blake was nowhere to be seen.

“He left. Don’t like the elevators,” King Helmut said, as my gaze searched for Blake.

“We’re taking an elevator?”

Dad laughed at my whiny tone.

“I hate how it makes me feel.”

“Your dragon feels like that for days. It’s why he flies,” Lucian said.

“Where is the museum?”

“Etan.” Lucian stuffed his mouth with eggs.

“Are you coming with me?”

“You bet we are coming with you.” Sammy’s voice came from the doorway. I got up and gave her and Isabel—that must have just arrived—a hug.

“Blake left already?” his mother asked.

“Yes.” Lucian took a bite of his toast.

“He is such a baby.”

“Yeah, don’t let your brother hear you say that, Sammy,” Lucian said.

My lips quirked, remembering him saying the same thing to Blake yesterday.

“Let me guess, the elevator doesn’t make you feel like crap?” Sammy asked.

“No, it’s fun. Like a big rollercoaster ride.”

“From hell.” I mouthed.

Dad winked. “You’ll get used to it, Bear.”

I doubted that. Reporters and ancients were one thing, but an elevator that went against the law of science was another thing. After breakfast, we took the ghastly elevator to Etan.

Reporters waited for us on the other side, too. For the love of blueberries, how did they know we were going to be here?

Dad led me out to another SUV that waited for us, as there was no sign of Blake anywhere.

The drive to the museum was a short one.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Dad said as a throng of reporters waited outside the building which carried huge embossed letters on gray stone announcing the museum.

My heart galloped at once as my eyes reverted to the sky, hoping that I would see the outline of a massive dragon, but there were none.

Emanual stopped next to the sidewalk, guided by one worker from the museum. When he maneuvered the SUV into the parking spot, the reporters throng toward the SUV.

“Sit in the car, Elena,” Emanual said and climbed out of the SUV.

He spoke a few words, but they sounded muffled through the closed door.

“You okay, Bear?”

“This is crazy, Dad. I’m one person.”

“Wrong, you are the daughter of their beloved king and queen. I’m afraid Lucian’s words were not wrong. Your life will never be the same after this. You need to learn how to deal with them, the sooner the better.”

“Please, not more tutors.”

His lips curved upwards. “I’m afraid the only one that can help you with this is a royal herself. This news will delight her, Elena.”

Queen Maggie. I loved her to bits, and the woman was kind, but with this subject, everything had to be perfect and it drained the joy out of me.

The door opened, and Emanual left out his hand for me. I took it and flashes blinded me as they bounced all over my body. Dad climbed out after me, and the questions started. They called him Jako on this side. He waved at them, held his chin high and grabbed me, leading me toward the large brick building that had two huge stone dragons framing a gilded door.

We slipped through to a dimmed light area. The first thing that popped up was the vast warning written in big bold letters on the wall. A warning to not touch any of the exhibitions and to keep your tone hush.

We waited while Emanual followed the staff member.

Sammy walked close to me. “It’s the first time that I’ve seen the museum empty.”

“Our royals have our perks.” Lucian walked past with his hands in his pockets.

“So unfair.” Sammy rolled her eyes and traipsed toward him.

The reporters yelled once more when a thud reverberated through the doors.

“The big guy is here.” Lucian glanced at his watch. “Not bad timing. Wonder how fast he flew?”

“Something tells me it is his precious waiting for him.”

“Sammy,” I said. “That’s mean.”

“What? Elena, you are his precious.”

This was the time I felt like I was his property, like Smiggle in Lord of the Rings with his precious. I wasn’t a stupid ring.

Dad laughed at something, and Lucian wanted to know why he laughed.

“He’s growling.”

I shook my head as a smile sprawled on my lips. He was always growling. The door opened, and Blake came running in wearing a dark robe and his bag dangling over his shoulder.

He planted his lips on my temple before slipping through another door.

Dad, Lucian and Sammy just stared at me.

“What?”

“He is so different. I sometimes don’t know who my brother is.”

“No, that is your brother,” Lucian said. “I did not know who the idiot of the past six years was.”

The door opened, and Blake walked out, pulling down a baby blue color sweater. Heat flushed over my body at the defined lines of his stomach.

“You couldn’t finish dressing before joining us?” Dad said.

Blake pushed the sleeves up to his elbows. “I’m dressed, chill.”

Emanual came back with a woman wearing suit pants. She had taken her red hair up in an elegant bun. She rushed over and shook Dad’s hand. “Jako, so nice to have you back in Paegeia.”

“It’s great to be back home.”

“You must be Princess Elena.”

“Just Elena.” I shook her hand. She was friendly, but then again, everyone was friendly when they met me for the first time.

“I believe you want to go through the museum first?”

“Yes,” Blake said.

“Great, we will arrange lunch for you. Anything in particular?”

“Burgers, please?” I asked.

Her cherry lips curved upward. “Burgers it is. We will see you later for the fitting session.”

“Awesome.” I couldn’t believe they were going to put me in this museum somewhere.

I wondered why my dad was here?

Emanual didn’t come with us as we walked on the thick red carpet that lined the path. A strong antique smell caressed my nose.

“Come, this is the starting point.” Blake took the path closest to the entrance. The brass plate hanging from the ceiling read VIKINGS in big letters. It reminded me a lot of the Madame Tussauds museum Dad had taken me to once.

They showcased Vikings carrying enormous weapons behind glass, frozen in time. Most of them were big ogres with long beards and messed-up hair. Pantene would have done wonders in those days. A small description on another brass plate explained the era and the people who lived during the time as Dad launched into a tale of this time. The activities they did mostly comprised gathering food and making weapons to slay dragons.

“The Viking era is quite boring. The only thing they did was drink, eat, sleep, slay dragons, and have plenty of sex.”

Heat warmed my entire body at Lucian’s words as Blake’s fist connected with his shoulder.

“What? She knows what sex is.”

Dad growled, which made Sammy suppressed her laughter.

“Sorry, what do you want me to say? Make love. I doubt they had a thing for that. Probably used a more vulgar word.”

“Enough!” Blake said before Lucian could say more. My cheeks were on fire. The next exhibit made me laugh, as it was Blake.

“What?”

“This is you?”

“No, it’s Quito.”

My gaze flickered back to the dragon. He looked just like Blake, was dark, a mixture between a red and a purple-black. His eyes were red, and I remembered the dream I had about Blake in the beginning. His eyes were the same red color. They set deep in its sockets with huge nostrils that I imagined emitted fire. Thick catfish whiskers covered its entire head like fur, which really made it look pure evil. Its tail resembled a big tree stump that whittled down into a spear end. Webbed feet and enormous claws told me it was a swimmer, and wings that looked as if someone had put them through a shredder machine protruded from its back. Pointy, vicious talons ran on the edges of each wing, and I couldn’t decide if it was beautiful, ugly, or just plain deadly.

“He was the Rubicon before me.”

Right next to the dragon, a tiny figure reached up to his knee. The sign read that it was an average human male. Goosebumps made my skin crawl as I realized it was the human-dragon ratio. I looked at Blake. “You’re still growing?”

“Yeah?”

“How the hell am I going to stay on your back?”

“Have you seen the size of my paws? We can make you a comfy nest I can pick up and fly with you.”

“A nest, like I’m some bird.”

“You are my bird,” he flirted, and Dad’s scowling gaze flickered to Blake.

“Oh, hell no. Not you too. I endured plenty of those looks from the woman who gave birth to her, thank you.”

“They are not here anymore, Blake. Watch it.”

One was. My gaze flickered to Blake, but he didn’t look at me.

We entered the next corridor with knights holding jousting sticks and wearing heavy armor. They even had Yorkshire and some of the Eastern Europe countries on display, with model dragons soaring through the air breathing fire down on unsuspecting villages.

“The Sun-Blast and Moon-Bolt made it really difficult for dragons in the old world,” Dad said, as I couldn’t keep my eyes off the detail in the scene.

“Do you remember that time?”

“Before my time, I’m afraid. But I remember the stories our elders used to tell us. Teach us about the old world.”

“You mean the world before the wall?”

Dad nodded.

“How long has the wall been up now?”

“Oh, for the last nine hundred years,” Dad said.

We moved to the next exhibition. It was some sort of obstacle course that reminded me of First Knight, a movie featuring Richard Gere and Sean Connery. Richard’s character had to complete an obstacle course just to get a kiss from the lovely Guinevere. They scaled the obstacles down to a smaller size. The fine detail of the hammers sliding past one another and enormous boulders crashing down had my attention. Logs with swinging balls attached to them rotated at top speeds. Even the surface where the contestant walked to get through the obstacle was moving.

“It was entertainment in the old days,” Dad said.

“This is so wicked. I wish they would bring it back.”

“You would see your ass so fast, Lu,” Sammy said.

“No, I won’t. My reflexes are fast. I’m sure your brother will set fire to it if he fails.”

“Haha, funny,” Blake said, using a dry tone. “Did clowns swim in your breakfast this morning?”

My lips fanned into a grin at the three bickering.

I imagined myself, super tiny, trying to get through in one piece. The two rocks colliding on top of each other smashed me.

We kept on walking, and we reached the next exhibition. “The Sacred Cavern.” The detail they used to display the cave was amazing. “What is this?”

“A cavern only the brave or the desperate will enter,” Dad said.

My gaze flickered to him. “To do what?”

“To retrieve the most prized possession in all of Paegeia—a millpond so magical that it can show you anything you wish to know. Whether it’s past, present, or future, it will reveal all to whomever gazes into its surface.”

I gaped at the tiny stairs leading to a monstrous cave.

“It’s not that easy, though,” Blake said. “The price is high. If you can’t face whatever the cave is hiding, then it claims your life.”

“Has anyone ever made it out alive?” I couldn’t take my eyes off the detail. The million steps made me think of a Chinese temple. The steps led to huge doors molded into a cave surrounded by a forest.

“Look.” Dad tapped on a brass plate with five names. Lucian, Sammy and Blake’s lips curved into smiles as my eyes looked through the names.

There were five of them, and the title of the brass plate read, the Sacred Cavern’s survivors.

I froze as I saw the last name. Catherine Squires.

“My mom?”

Dad nodded. “She was about your age when she went inside. She told no one what was inside the cave. Not even Tanya.”

“If it was before Tanya, I’m sure…” Blake whispered.

“Sure of what?” Lucian asked.

“Nothing.”

“Were you going to slip up on something there, Blake?” Lu said.

“Shut up.”

Sammy thought everything was hilarious as her hyena laughter vibrated through the hallways.

“Shh,” Lucian said through chuckles.

“What’s inside?”

“Besides the millpond, no one knows. The five women that made it out never revealed what they saw or did. No one knows why. It’s very mysterious.”

“Wow.” The story behind the cave fascinated me, but we had to keep moving.

As we moved further into the exhibition, we came to a room that explained the sports that the knights used to compete in. Some were jousting on horses and the others were battling one on one. The last one looked like some sort of team battle.

“They forced the soldiers to compete to keep them fit for war. In those times, the war was between humans and dragons,” Dad said.

Humans can be so terrible. “Was it any different after the wall?”

“No. The only time things changed was when your grandfather took over. He fell in love with a dragon, but never knew that she was one. They killed her in the end, but it also revealed one of our secrets, that we could take a human form. King Louie knew from then on that Metallic dragons posed no threat. When he became king, he studied the Metallic dragons and learned a lot from us. He discovered another secret, that they could ride us. Those were exciting times and where my roads crossed with the Malones. We learned a lot from each other. He still killed a lot of Chromatic dragons, Bear. He refused to believe that they are just like us, only angrier. Your father changed that. He was such a brave lad. It’s horrible that we lost them the way we had. He didn’t deserve to die at the hands of someone he treasured as a dear friend.”

I could just imagine the blow, discovering that your best friend wanted to kill you. My eyes found Blake again, but he wasn’t looking at me. I knew that the revelation of my father still alive behind the creepers weighed heavily on him. If worrying about his father wasn’t the reason he didn’t tell anyone, then what was?

We went through a few more individual exhibits. The first one was a blond guy with the most beautiful green eyes with a shade of blue around the iris. The era was right after the Vikings. I thought they were a bit more civilized, but still needed Pantene.

“Meet your great, great grandfather, Bear,” Dad said.

“What?”

“King William,” he announced. “He was the first bloodline of the royals. The sword he carries is none other than the King of Lion’s sword.” Dad smiled. “A formidable weapon.”

“I know about the sword. We learned about it during orientation week. That is the sword.”

“Yup, your father let the sword go when he came into ruling. Said he wouldn’t need it. He was so wrong. It could’ve saved his life, but his kind act saved Paegeia that night. Just imagine what Goran would’ve done if he had that sword.”

Silence lingered as I stared at the sword. The King of Lion Sword.

“Does it really have all those magic abilities?”

“It does,” Dad said. “His queen was the fourth daughter of one of our French rulers.”

I looked at the woman standing next to him with dark hair.

We kept walking and moved past a room featuring all the important figures that had been a part of King William’s council. Surnames like McKenzie, Abbott, Johnson, and Smith had been there since the beginning.

“Your ancestors?” I pointed at the McKenzie figure that almost resembled the guy in the portrait at the castle.

“Yeah,” Lucian said. “My great, great, grandfather.”

We exited King William’s era and moved to a section that had to do with famous foretellings. The first figure was a beautiful woman with black hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

“Her name is Irene. She lives in Dragonia. She still gives many foretelling to this day. Gave all of mine and I wanted to kill her with every single one back then,” Blake said.

“You wouldn’t.”

He huffed.

“Blake was dark before you. You wouldn’t even like him if you met his cocky side,” Lucian said.

“I got news for you. He is still cocky.”

Dad laughed.

“That is mean.” All fun and games disappeared out of Blake’s tone.

“What? You are. Should I tell them about Chloe?”

A chuckle bubbled out of him as he covered my lips with the palm of his hand as the other two wanted to know about Chloe.

“She was irritating the crap out of me, and that is all you are going to get, so let it go.”

I laughed as he took his hand away from my lips.

His foot brushed against my bum as he walked past me. I headed over to Dad paging through the book as Lucian and Sammy teamed up to tease Blake about Chloe.

“What is this?”

“Irene’s foretelling.”

“So what? They copy everything she says.”

Dad’s lips curved upwards. “It’s a magical book, Bear. Whatever she sees, appears magically here.”

On the first page was a single paragraph.

The leaves of change will come at last, when the fate of two hearts’ bond is cast. Souls intertwined and hearts no longer torn. Through their love, Paegeia will once again be reborn.

“This is beautiful,” I said after reading the paragraph.

“It’s still black, which is a problem for me.”

“Why?”

“It means it hasn’t come yet.”

“Why is it a problem for you?”

“I can only imagine whose foretelling this is.” Dad looked at me.

“Who?”

“The alpha of the dragons, Elena.”

My gaze skidded through the words again.

“You think this is Blake’s?”

“And yours. Only a dragon’s love can change a world. You are a new Dent. He is the alpha. I can only imagine the depth his love goes, as he is the improved version of a dragon.”

“When he commands, do you have to listen too?”

Dad huffed. “It’s called a Dragon’s call. I felt it only once, and no matter how young he still is, it’s powerful.”

“When?”

“Back home, when he told us not to tell you what he is. He wanted you to get used to the dragons first.”

“That’s why you didn’t tell me?”

“I couldn’t. He said that he would tell you, but I doubted he bargained on the ancients ruling the other way to keep him and you apart. I guess it only became harder for him to tell you what he was.”

My eyes skidded over to Blake. He had Lucian’s head under his arm, and the two of them were struggling with each other playfully.

“Was that the reason you spoke in Latin?”

“No, it was when you went to your room and he came back. Robert told me you already had a bond. I didn’t know. I could’ve easily damaged that bond, Elena…”

“What bond?”

“Yours started naturally. You fell in love the way a bond should start. It rarely happens before the claim, but then again, he is the Rubicon. Remember when you told him to leave, you will sort it out?”

“Yeah, he has a weird way—”

“That is not coming from Blake. If you truly mean it, he has to do it.”

I froze as I stared at my father. “What?”

“Never show him away when you fear for his life or yours. He is there to protect you, Elena. They call it a true order. Only the riders that are part of a Dent have that power over their dragons. Some who share bonds close to a dent also experience it. Like Robert and your dad. They had that bond, but they weren’t a dent. Tanya and your mother also had that. Your mother ordered Tanya to go to the other side with you and raised you until it was safe to come home. Only a rider can break a true order. They have to take the words back. You have that effect over Blake way before you claimed him, Elena, which isn’t natural. That is why this foretelling bothers me, as no human had that effect on a dragon before they claimed them.”

I looked through the paragraph again.

The leaves of change will come at last, when the fate of two hearts’ bond is cast. Souls intertwined and hearts no longer torn. Through their love, Paegeia will once again be reborn.

“The leaves part is also a dead giveaway.”

I crossed my eyes at Dad, and he laughed. We paged through the book.

“Why are some sentences red and others blue?”

“The ones in red have already been fulfilled. Those blue ones have expired without being fulfilled. The black ones like the one on the front page, well, they still haven’t come to light.”

Wow!

My eye caught a black one as I flipped toward the middle. It belonged to a dragon and said that his Dragonian would be struck by lightning.

“Someone is going to be struck by lightning?” My eyes grew as I looked up at Dad.

“Relax, Bear. It’s probably a rider that belongs to a Moonbolt. It won’t be in your time.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the riders that come into their abilities like this belong to a dent. You and Blake are this generation’s dent. So it will be in another generation.”

We found a foretelling about Blake. It was about his Dragonian. Although the text didn’t use the exact words, spawn of King Albert and Queen Catherine sure implied it. I frowned. It was red.

“This one was linked to me, wasn’t it?”

Dad nodded. “Blake?”

Blake came rushing over to us and looked over my shoulder.

“Hey, it’s red. I think that is the only one, though.”

We laughed as Dad closed the book and we moved on to the next exhibit.

It was about Master Longwei. The museum had both his forms on display—the human form as I knew him, and his dragon form. His scales were gold, and he had whiskers sprouting from his nose. If dragons smiled, Master Longwei definitely did the day they made this model. He looked beautiful and majestic. It must be a metallic thing.

The Renaissance era was boring.

My grandad ruled Paegeia with the same cruelty toward dragons.

As I passed another display case, two axes caught my eye. They belonged to my mom. She had fought with them in three separate wars. She entered her first war at fifteen, and my grandfather led the crusade. I scrolled through the boring stuff. She fought the second war at eighteen for the rights of the dragons. The information on the brass plate said that it was the most important battle in the history of Paegeia. The war meant that all the dragons, Chromatic and Metallic, were to be seen as equals.

My favorite exhibition was the one that displayed all the dragons and their signs. The last sign belonged to the Rubicon. It looked complicated and in a league of its own.

Blake took his arm out of his sleeve and showed me the sign on a well defined and muscular arm. It almost looked like they burned it into his skin.

“You were born with this?” My hands brushed over the tattoo.

“Okay, enough showing off, put on your sweater,” Dad said.

Blake raised his eyebrows as my lips shut tight on each other. He pulled his arm back into his sleeve.

“His sign is all the dragon signs combined,” Sammy said. “Come look. They break it down for you.” I followed her around the corner. “Here is mine. The Copper-horn goes in this way. There’s the Fin-Tail, and the Swallow Annex.” She showed me where everything fit, like a puzzle. Blake carried them all inside of him, even the Night Villain. I grabbed a leaflet that broke it down.

He really was an unbelievable dragon, and he was all mine.

We moved on and found all the different species of the dragons displayed in smaller size models behind glass. Dragon eggs came first, and they varied in size. Some looked like egg-shaped rocks that needed to be baked to hot temperatures, like the Sun-Blast and Fire-Tail. Some had little spotted dents that reminded me of a huge egg-shaped golf ball. Then there were eggs of different colors. One was a soft green. Another had a mixture of the rainbow melting into each other. They were all amazing.

As we left the egg room, a model of a full Snow dragon confronted me. It was the purest white I had ever seen. The tail reminded me of a crocodile’s tail with muscular hind legs, and small, white, triangle-shaped scales covered its torso. The front legs were not as big as the back legs, and the claws reminded me of an eagle’s. Two wings sprouted from the back, and the neck arched a little, with big scales covering it completely. The face looked like a dinosaur’s, with long teeth and a sharp pointy nose.

The Night Villain was the last dragon. It looked skeletal with webbed feet like the Rubicon. Its face and wings were skinny, and the flesh looked like someone pulled too small skin over the skeleton-like features. Its overall appearance made me shiver right down to my core. It almost looked like it was busy decomposing.

Around another corner, the Metallic dragons were simply magnificent. They all carried a posture with puffed-up chests and raised heads, and shimmery gold, silver, bronze, copper, and brass scales.

The section that explained what their skin could be used for brought a shiver up my spine. Humans harvested most of the Metallic dragons for armor, where they slaughtered the Chromatic ones for their blood, guts, toes, and scales—the key ingredients for almost all the important potions. They used their dragon teeth to make weapons, but ever since they discovered metal, the only purpose they held was as trophies.

A more civilized era greeted us in the next room. It began with large paintings of hulking castles. The one in Etan was the most enchanted. It looked as if fireflies made homes on the edges of the walls and rooftops. I stared at it for at least ten minutes, completely entranced.

“That is your home, bear. Was mine too?” Dad said.

Home. “Does it still exist?”

“I don’t know.”

“Such a pity,” I whispered.

We moved on to another Night Villain. This one had a human figure right next to it and I gasped. I looked at Blake. “This is your father?”

“Yeah, horrible job.”

“It looks just like him.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

“It looks just like him.” The brass plate next to it read that he was King Albert’s dragon.

We reached a temple. Dad lit one of the thousand candles that were outside the two doors. The others toed off their shoes and stood in their socks. I followed their lead.

“It’s paying respect. Some people come here to pray. Although they know the dead are in the spirit world, they still believe God is always present where there are people that live by His Son’s example,” Lucian said.

Blake held out his hand for mine and I took it. I followed him into the room and I gasped as I saw the two figures sitting on the thrones. It was my mom and dad. Blake smiled as the tears in my eyes pricked. I wished I could’ve known them the way everyone else did. The little time I got with my dad wasn’t enough.

Blake kneeled down to them as if they were still alive. I did the same, and Dad chuckled behind me as he pulled me up.

“They are your parents, bear. You don’t need to bow down to them. They would’ve loved you so much, especially your mother. She wanted you so badly.”

I wiped a tear as I kept staring at them. It put me at ease to know they were somewhere on this side, even if it was as a wax doll.

A golden rope was the barrier between them and us. They both sat on their thrones, tall and proud, as if they waited for something, probably me, to come home. Mom sat upright, graceful, and Dad’s pride shone in his erect posture. They didn’t smile, though, which didn’t feel natural at all.

We carried on walking and I froze as I found a statue of Blake. He grunted. “It looks nothing like me.”

“I don’t know. He is handsome, Blake.”

“It’s a wax figure, Elena.”

“It’s you.” I laughed. He really was possessive. More wax figures of kings and queens greeted us in the next room.

We passed King Caleb and his wife with their daughter. I hadn’t met her yet. My grandfather made their family rulers, as it was too big for him to run alone.

I saw a statue of Lucian standing behind the throne of his parents. “The Royal Family of Tith” stood boldly in big golden letters on a brass plate. Queen Maggie and King Helmut sat on their thrones in front of Lucian.

“I agree with Blake. They seriously suck with some things.”

“It looks just like you.”

“I don’t look like that.”

“You do, too, Lucian.”

“Yeah, we will speak again when they are going to put you in here, Elena.”

The last exhibit was a replica of the King of Lion sword. “The blade of Aegis” was on the brass plate in front of the glass box that protected the sword. I had seen it in my Mysteries book on my very first day. Many of the kings and queens posed with it and Dad had mentioned that King William had killed the first Rubicon with it. After that, he had carried it everywhere he went and so had King Alexander, Louie, and Albert. The sword was always close to them.

“Why isn’t there a model of Goran?”

“He doesn’t belong in the museum, Elena. He gave up that right when he slaughtered your parents,” Blake answered.

“Why do you think he did it?”

“Envy, who knows? He had no reason to be jealous, but he was anyway. I think it was his power that turned him evil. Before Sarafina, his dragon, died, she gave him a part of her essence. I think if a dragon gives you too much of their essence, the human body changes. Maybe that was what led him to do what he had done.”

“I like your theories,” I complimented him.

“Well, I am a tenth Crown and Copper.”

We spent the entire morning inside the museum until our lunch was ready.

Blake was right, I’d learned so much from this museum and I couldn’t believe they were going to put me in here too.