Most of my memories returned. It took a while, and I felt off-balance after the claim. Fighting to stay good wasn’t as hard as giving in to becoming a slave.

　　Two questions nagged at me: How did Elena become skilled enough to claim me? And who trained her?

　　I racked my brain to remember. Lucian died, and she became a dragon. After that, things were fuzzy. I guess I was so dark and lost that I went over the edge.

　　Why couldn’t I remember?

　　I was in a room I didn’t recognize, with Stan’s voice yapping in my ears.

　　How did I get here? The last thing I remembered, I’d taken a break from band practice and sat against the wall to sift through memories.

　　I wished he would shut up. I had a headache, and his voice was hitting the walls of my brain, vibrating through my skull.

　　He kept yapping.

　　“You are the true royal of this world,” he said with a smirk. “And I will tell them that you are not fit at all. You don’t give us your cooperation to learn. You don’t want to be on the throne. They will strip you of your title and your assets will be frozen.”

　　What the fuck was he talking about? It didn’t make sense, and he was pissing me off.

　　“What you did last night was unacceptable. Do you know the damage you’ve done?”

　　“Fuck off!” I yelled, but he didn’t seem to care. Did he know who he was dealing with?Threatening the Rubicon had consequences.

　　“Do I make myself clear?” he asked.

　　Silence.

　　“Answer me!” His face was beet red.

　　“Yes,” she said.

　　Wait, what? She?

　　It was Elena’s voice. They kept talking, but I didn’t listen anymore.

　　“Blake,” Isaac said, shaking my shoulder.

　　The entire band was in his basement.

　　“You okay, dude?” Ty asked.

　　Isaac chimed in. “Where were you just now?”

　　“Just thinking.” I rubbed my temples.

　　“You told us to fuck off,” Jamie said with a furrowed brow.

　　I ignored him and got up from the floor. I needed to find a newspaper. Yuri always got one early in the mornings.

　　I found one lying on the kitchen table, and on the front page was a picture of Elena Watkins.

　　The headline questioned whether she was fit to be on the throne of Paegeia.

　　I shook my head. Why was this happening? She’d heard my voice when Paul attended Dragonia, but I hadn’t heard a peep from her before. Why now?

　　I didn’t care, and I didn’t want to know what she’d done last night. I wasn’t her dragon, and I would fight with everything I had not to lose myself.

　　The headache pulsed.

　　I grunted and fell to my knees.

　　What the fuck?

　　“Blake,” Isaac said into my ear. He crouched beside me. He must have heard me fall and come up from the basement.

　　“Don’t,” I said through clenched teeth.

　　“Dude, something’s wrong.”

　　I screamed, the room tilted, and my vision went dark.

　　I was on a hilltop. The weather was perfect—sunny and cloudless, with a gentle breeze. The hatred, the fight, every horrible thing inside me had vanished.

　　She was sitting a foot away, chewing on the tip of a long weed. She seemed deep in thought, and the sun sparkled off her red hair. She was beautiful.

　　My Neverbreath.

　　I reached out and touched her face gently with the back of my hand. She didn’t even lookat me.

　　“What, you’re not talking to me?”

　　She huffed, but the corner of her lips tugged up a tiny bit.

　　“It doesn’t matter what I do. You don’t care,” she said.

　　I snagged my own weed from the tall grass around us. “I do care. I told you before, I’m not built that way.” I couldn’t die to join her in her ghostly plane; I’d tried and failed. Whatever power Elena had over me wouldn’t allow me to harm myself, or her. “I would give anything to be with you.”

　　She gave a sarcastic laugh.

　　“You don’t believe me?”

　　“Don’t give me that bullshit. You’re not trying. You’re…” She sighed and shook her head.

　　“I’m what?”

　　“Nothing. Like I said. It doesn’t matter what I say, and I’m tired of everything. I can’t do this anymore, Blake.”

　　“No!” I yelled.

　　My eyes opened and Yuri, Ty, Isaac, and the rest of the band stood over me.

　　I was lying on the kitchen floor, and my headache was gone.

　　“Dude,” Isaac said.

　　I shook my head and pushed myself up onto my elbows. They all stepped away to give me some space.

　　Silence lingered. Yuri watched me with compassion as I got myself up onto a dining chair. I rested my arms on the table with my head cradled in my hands and took a few deep breaths.

　　“Talk to me,” Isaac said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

　　“It’s complicated. A Rubicon thing.”

　　“Stop saying that. I want to know what is going on with you.”

　　“I don’t know!” I yelled. It felt like I was losing my mind. If I told them about my Neverbreath and hearing Elena in my head, they would agree. “I know nothing. I’m so fucking confused and tired and angry all at the same time. I don’t want to live like this anymore, Isaac.”

　　Isaac said, “I think practice is over.”

　　I crashed on Isaac’s bed. Yuri had put a hammock in the corner for me to sleep in, but right then, I wanted a bed.

　　Isaac and the shifters were the only ones who gave me space. Isaac was like my mother. Hedidn’t hover. But I could tell he was worried. Hell, I was worried.

　　Why had I seen Stan and Elena?

　　I was so tired. I closed my eyes until the only thing that consumed my mind was a big black pool of nothing.

　　A few hours later, I woke up feeling much better. By that time, it was the middle of the night and Isaac was snoring from my hammock. I went to the kitchen, ate a bowl of cereal,and went back to bed.

　　The next day I felt like myself and talked to Isaac. I tried to explain to him what the claim had done to me, and how I felt out of it.

　　The claim had left me unbalanced and played with my head. My memories were scrambled up,and I couldn’t pinpoint what I’d done for a few months before the claim. It was a blankspot. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t retrieve them.

　　Isaac looked longingly at his guitar leaned against the wall, but didn’t say anything.

　　“You see what I mean? None of this is normal,” I said, finally.

　　He stroked his face hard. “I wish I could tell you what you did, but we didn’t talk much. We didn’t have any gigs or band practice. Why don’t you ask Tabitha?”

　　“She’ll think I’m nuts. Besides, you know we’re not a thing.”

　　“Then why are you always with her?”

　　“I have needs.”

　　Isaac chuckled. “She is hot. But seriously, I wish I could help you carry what the claim did to you.”

　　“Will you help me fight it? I can’t lose myself. I have to find a way to break this, forall dragons. I’m the Alpha, they look up to me. I need to free them from this enslavement.”

　　He nodded.

　　We played a few songs to help me forget my shit, then we crashed. Isaac snored long before I drifted away. I stared at the moon through the window, thinking about the shifters. Their life was simple. They avoided technology and focused on relationships.

　　Suddenly, I felt a heaviness on my chest. My heart raced and my breath quickened. I felt trapped. It made no sense. Yuri kept all the windows wide open. I could leave whenever I wanted, and I didn’t want to leave. I felt welcomed, like a member of the family. But atthat moment, I felt the opposite.

　　I wanted to scream in frustration that didn’t feel like my own.

　　It was annoying.

　　I need to get out.

　　Elena.

　　I can’t sit here.

　　Flashes of my sister and Becky, with expressions that looked as if they didn’t care, jumped into my mind.

　　She needed a Cammy. Hers had been taken away because of something she had refused to do.

　　It hit me. This was all her. Her feeling of being trapped. Her frustration. I hadn’t even succumbed and we already shared an unwanted bond.

　　The next few days I was stuck with two sets of thoughts and emotions.

　　Mine, and Elena’s.

　　I struggled to pay attention. I missed questions that Isaac and Yuri asked. They finallystopped talking to me altogether.

　　I got headaches when I tried to keep myself present and ignore whatever happened in Elena’s life. I didn’t want this connection, or asked for it. Why? Fuck, why?

　　She was forced to go to Areeth on her birthday. I didn’t care. But was forced to endure her feelings about it. It made me sick.

　　She demanded to see my father.

　　They told her that he didn’t care, her friends didn’t care, they hadn’t RSVP’d for her birthday party.

　　They were dumb if they thought my father would turn his back on his rider’s daughter. For him, she had taken King Albert’s place. He wanted to be her dragon, and they should let him. I wouldn’t fight it.

　　Elena wasn’t the Rubicon’s property, and I sure as shit wasn’t hers.

　　She was nothing to me. If I could kill her, I would.

　　That entire night I watched her exclusive party and felt her sadness. She cried a coupleof times, which only riled me up more.

　　How had she found the guts to tame me?

　　She wasn’t worthy. She was weak. And yet, she had this power over me. It made me want to kill her even more.

　　By the end of her birthday, I felt as if I could scream.

　　Isaac was concerned, as he watched me pace around the room, pounding my fists against myhead.

　　He tried to calm me. “Dude, you need to Dent. You’re losing yourself. It’s not worth this anguish.”

　　“No, Isaac!” I screamed. She was still yapping in the back of my head. I felt her trapped, angry, sad emotions inside me. “I’m fighting as we speak. And you said you’dhelp.”

　　“Fighting against what? There’s no one here to fight,” he said.

　　I laughed, maniacally, and tapped my temple. “She’s in here with me. Has been for the past week. I can’t do this anymore.”

　　What I was saying, sunk in. His eyes widened. I wasn’t sure if it was shock or horror. “You hear her?”

　　I nodded. “And I feel her emotions, as well as my own. I can’t deal with this, Isaac. I need…”

　　“No, you don’t need Fire-Cain. You can control this. Block her from your mind. Is it a two-way stream?”

　　“I don’t think so.” If it was, she would’ve begged me to help her. She would’ve begged me to get my dad or anyone who could get her away from the people doing this to her.

　　“Okay, clear your mind,” he said in a soothing, yoga tone.

　　“I can’t. Mymind isn’t the problem here.”

　　“Then ask someone for help. Whatever Elena’s going through, she needs someone to get her out of it. Something tells me this isn’t going away until help comes.”

　　I gaped at Isaac. He was a genius!

　　“Of course!” I said, slapping my palm against my forehead. “I owe you.” I ran to his window and jumped out.

　　I morphed into my dragon form in midair, and Elena’s thoughts became ten times louder. I roared and my Pink Kiss exploded from my nostrils. Luckily, there were no birds or trees in its path.

　　I flew straight home to find my father. He needed to do his job better. Otherwise, I would do something I didn’t want to do or was forced to do.

　　The house was quiet. I only picked up one heartbeat.

　　Where was everyone?

　　They weren’t at her birthday. I would’ve seen it, and she would’ve felt different.

　　I descended onto the front lawn and changed back into my human form. The volume of her thoughts dropped a few notches. Better, but still not ideal.

　　I opened the heavy wooden front door to an empty house. The living room furniture was gone, and the walls were bare. All the pictures of Sammy and I when were little, gone.

　　My stomach dropped.

　　I felt cold.

　　“What the?”

　　The light switched on. “Hello, son.”

　　I spun around and found him standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen.

　　“Dad?” I looked around for my mother and sister. I thought about Samuel. “What happened here?” I took a few steps closer to him. The kitchen was empty, too.

　　“We don’t live here anymore. I bought land and we’re rebuilding the manor.”

　　The manor? How?

　　My eyebrows knit together as I tried to make sense of it. Then it clicked. The vault. “She gave you money?”

　　No, I had left some money in the King’s vault a long time ago. I never knew he’d transferred it to the new one.”

　　The old Sir Robert was finally making his reappearance. A smile tugged at the corners ofmy lips, barely. “No more scraping around, turning each Pagoleon over twice?”

　　“I learned my lesson. It will be spent wisely.”

　　I nodded.

　　“So, you’re back?” he asked.

　　I wasn’t, and his question reminded me why I had come. Elena’s mental voice had lowered—maybe she was asleep—and his news about the manor had distracted me.

　　“I came because you need to get Elena out of there. She’s feeling trapped and I can’t deal with her emotions right now.”

　　His gaze narrowed. “How did you know about her, and what do you mean she’s feeling trapped?”

　　“Seriously?” My eyebrow raised. “Dad, she is royalty, by blood.” I chuckled. “You really think they were going to take it easy on her? They’re forcing this stinking world on her.” He stared at the empty spot where the table in the kitchen used to be. “They took away her Cammy, she can’t even call for help. Well, except me and to be honest, I don’t care much at the moment, I just can’t deal with her right now.”

　　My gaze fell on the floor where the table used to take up most of the kitchen. It seemed small then, but this house was huge.

　　“Blake, you can feel Elena’s emotions?” He asked, shocked.

　　I looked at the ceiling She was dreaming about Lucian. My neck felt stiff as I nodded.

　　“She asked for you tonight, for Becky, Sammy, Mom, anyone that knows her, but they refused.” I huffed. “They even got her birthday wrong.” I didn’t know why I said that. It must have come from Elena.

　　“Yes, it’s tomorrow, not today.”

　　“Just get her out of there, before I lose my mind and who knows what I will do.”

　　“Blake, come home. We’re staying at…”

　　“I’m not coming home, Dad,” I said through clenched teeth. Why couldn’t they accept it? “She’s not my rider. I’m the Rubicon! I can’t be tamed.” I felt darkness takingover. What the hell was this? “Just get her out of there.”

　　I stumbled out of that house. Its emptiness felt as if it was dragging me into nothingness.

　　I morphed, and in two flaps I was in the sky.