Chapter 30
791 Words
“Don’t worry. I’ll kiss you when you stop being afraid of taking responsibility for your choices.”
“I’m not afraid of responsibility!” I snapped. “I made a choice not to kiss you, so I wouldn’t complicate things for either of us!”
“Understood,” he said calmly. “You’re afraid of complications. You’ll grow out of it. I’m at your service, darling, any time, day or night.”
“I’m not afraid of anything!” Heat flared inside me. “Don’t twist my words!”
“Only words backed by action have meaning,” he replied evenly.
“I’m leaving. Enjoy your breakfast.”
He was infuriatingly clever. Slippery. For every argument, he found a counterargument that worked in his favor. In my world, people like that became successful politicians. In this one… he would likely meet the same fate.
It was easy to imagine him as the next Supreme Dragon.
I pictured Ray Flaming crowned in power, people bowing before him… and him pulling me close, kissing me in front of everyone.
I smiled without meaning to and then I heard Aria’s voice.
“Don’t fall in love with him, Ari. Don’t forget why you’re here.”
“Why would you think I’m going to fall in love with him? My goal is to help you and return to my world as soon as possible.”
“I’m in your mind, Ari. You can lie to everyone, even to yourself. But not to me. Be careful. He’s from the House of Fire. There’s wild desire in their blood, burning passion… but rarely love.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with him,” I said firmly. “I want to go home. After class, I’m heading straight to the library. I need to learn more about the element of Air… and Lea Arn. Do you know how she died?”
“When I left this world… she was still alive,” Aria answered quietly. “If I had been there… maybe she wouldn’t have died. I was her dragon. Her protector. Her friend.”
“I’ll find out what happened. I promise. But why did you leave this world?”
“She gave me a task. I had to find the Fifth Element. Without it, this world is doomed. But something went wrong… I was pulled into a spatial vortex — a kind of interworld portal. I was torn apart. And I didn’t have the strength to become whole again. A part of my soul found you. The rest… you already know.”
“The Fifth Element? You mean the element of spirit? Professor Willard said it’s the quintessence of all four elements.”
“Yes. The power of the elements began to mutate because of amplifiers. Children were given them almost from birth. Their natural dominant element was suppressed by the charged amulets. People lost the ability to use magic without them. Dragons stopped accepting their riders because humans lost their connection. They no longer understood them… no longer felt them. They were on different frequencies.Lea was one of the few who still could. She believed that if she found the Fifth Element, she could fix everything. She dreamed that humans and dragons would live in harmony again. She wanted to undo what greed and the blind hunger for power had done. The consequences were devastating. That’s why the dragons destroyed the House of Air to stop the creation of amplifiers. To force people back to themselves. To make them rediscover their element, open their subconscious… and hear their dragons again.”
“So that’s why the House of Air was destroyed…” I whispered. “But how did Lea Arn die? What happened on Mount Isaac? Where is it? What kind of place is that?”
“It’s sacred, Ari. The highest mountain in the world. The beginning and the end of everything. That’s where dragons gain their strength. It’s the greatest place of power. All four elements exist there at once.”
“How do you get there?”
“You don’t go there. You fly. Only dragons can find it. Or rather… they don’t know where it is. They feel it.”
“What if she was searching for the Fifth Element there? What if she found it?”
“I don’t think so. There’s nothing there but harsh nature… and a small altar where the Supreme once swore an oath to the dragons.”
“Then what happened?”
“That’s what you must discover, Ari. Otherwise… I’ll never forgive myself for not being there when she needed me.”
“I promise,” I said softly. “I’ll do everything I can to find the truth.”
- Writer
