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

Something weird happened when Blake kissed me. This entire thing was absurd when Lucian told me what was going on.

There were apparently two Blakes, and the one that hoisted Paul against the wall wasn’t ours. He was from a different universe. One like ours, but not.

Lucian struggled to tell me the truth, but a part of me figured it out. It wasn’t hard when Blake laid eyes on me and looked at me as if I was one of his most prized possessions. It only lasted for a short while, and then the ass came back.

He tried to play it cool, but I could tell by the look on his face, it was scaring him shitless.

What he claimed about Paul put the fear of wyverns back into our souls.

Lucian immediately backed away from Paul. There was no friendship. He even told me not to believe him. If he was here for the Elemental eggs, then he was up to something.

I didn’t ask what Elemental eggs were. And then he said it.

I was Blake’s rider. The lost daughter of King Albert and Queen Catherine.

Of course, I didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be the reason I was dreaming about her, could it?

I even sneaked a peek at Blake, but he was the same douche bag like always.

Lucian wanted space, too. It wasn’t easy. I mean, I didn’t understand any of this. Blake would never want to be with me like that. It was only his ice queen.

But what Lucian told me, he had to tell others. Master Longwei, his father. Obviously, they questioned Blake about it, and he denied it like crazy.

Then Lucian said it. He was going to take me to the creepers and if I walked past, it would be a done deal.

I’d only seen them on the television, and even then, they were scary.

A lot of things were going through my mind over the following days. But Blake didn’t make an appearance.

Lucian said that it was almost every day that he would come. It had been five days and there was still no sign of him. Until we stood right in front of the creepers and he offered to go in with me.

They spoke. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the way Blake spoke to Lucian told me that it wasn’t the asshole who’d hid who and what I was. Not that I believed it.

He came toward me, and the way he looked at me, with those lost peacock-blue eyes, warmed my insides. He was very protective and walked with me. The way he held me, touched my hand, told me to close my eyes. It was this other Blake. The one who’d come to tell everyone who I was. Why?

Inside was beautiful, and we talked.

We were married in his world, and for a second, I struggled to breathe. Tabitha was Lucian’s dragon. Meaning that she knew, and the story of how they’d found us, he and Sir Robert sounded like a fairy tale. Did it mean that my dad was still alive?

He confirmed it again. That King Albert was alive. He was Goran’s puppet, and then he explained why he was here. He’d used his orbs, something I’d only learned about a few months back, to enter this universe. To get to me.

It was a shock to find out what had happened to me in his world. I was an empty shell, Goran’s doing. He didn’t want to go into detail, as he didn’t want to waste his time talking about him. He wanted to spend it with me. To tell me how he felt. The tears alone pulled and tugged at my heartstrings.

He made me promise not to back off, no matter what he said, and then he told me it was the last time he was going to see me. That this was his goodbye. I didn’t want him to leave. Not while he was proclaiming all these things to me.

Lucian was far from my mind, too. For the first time, I felt like I was meant to be with Blake. I felt like his.

He kissed me, something I’d never imagined in years, and then it happened.

It was a pull, and a tug, the weirdest feeling ever, and it followed with nausea. A lot of nausea.

I opened my eyes, and we were not with the beautiful glowing flowers anymore. I was in a room, staring at a ceiling that showed magical painted baby angels all over. I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around.

The room was posh, like one of the rooms in King Helmut’s palace. My eyes skittered over all the details. Taking in the pictures on the wall.

Queen Catherine was in six of them. It was some sort of emotion collage or whatever you called it. She wasn’t as scary as she was in my dreams. She was stunning, beautiful.

The door opened, and a gasp reached my ears.

I turned around, and Constance, or Isabel, stood at the entrance. Her hand flung to her chest as tears welled up in her eyes. “Elena?”

I nodded, and she ran toward me. Wrapped her arms around me and pulled me tighter into her.

“He did it. He somehow did it.”

I pushed her away. “Where am I?”

She touched my face. “What do you remember?”

“It’s weird. I was at the academy, and Blake told me who I was. Told me this ridiculous story that I was King Albert’s long-lost daughter and his rider. It made no sense. I was in the middle of the creepers.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Constance stared at me with pulled eyebrows.

“I told you it was weird. Where am I?” I didn’t want to tell her that her nephew kissed me.

“Bear?” A voice that wasn’t supposed to be called my name, and I turned my head.

My dad covered the entire entrance of my room. “Dad?” I breathed. Was I dead?

He opened his arms, and I didn’t think. I ran to him and slammed into his body. My feet dangled from the ground. I breathed in his scent and couldn’t get enough. Sobs poured from me. It was him. “I’m so sorry for everything. For not believing you that night.”

“Shhh, I do not know what you are speaking about, but it’s all good.” He laughed and kissed my head so many times.

The hug broke, and my father put me back on the ground.

I frowned and looked at Constance again, then back at my dad. “There were dragons following us. You told me to run. I did, and you died.”

His eyebrows furrowed, and he glanced to Constance.

Constance walked toward us and touched my cheek. “I don’t know what he’s done, but whatever it is, he brought her back. Or a part of her.”

He brought me back? That was what he was trying to do. He’d told me that. He’d succeeded? This was so weird.

My father smiled, and his palm rested gently against my cheek. “You’re okay. It is all that matters.”

“Where are we?”

“You don’t remember that?”

I shook my head.

“You are home. In Etan.”

“Etan? No, Etan is blocked off…” I paused. Blake’s world. The alternative universe. I was really here.

“Sweet pea?” Another guy with blonde hair entered. The one side of his face was burned, but his eyes immediately filled with tears. Eyes that were the same color as mine.

I frowned, staring at him. Then it hit me who it was. It was King Albert. He was really alive.

I didn’t know if I should bow or curtsey, and I did this weird funny thing.

“Stop,” he said, and then he pulled me into his chest, hugged me tight.

His strong manly scent almost burned my nostrils, but not in a bad way. It was a weird smell, but not bad. It was hard to explain it.

I was really his daughter? I needed to wake up, or something. But this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be, could it?