Page 84 of The Healing Dragon
“I don’t forget a thing.” It turns to me. “An old creature indeed.”
“Creature is one way of describing it.” Jesse crosses his arms. “We will depart for Fierno tomorrow. After Fierno, wewill visit Duelo at his hideout. If you find Klause, you can meet us on the way.”
Calaca turns to Matias. “I will not be long.”
Matias nods.
Jesse turns in my direction. “We’ll talk tonight.”
Before I can say anything he is jogging towards the forest. I watch him go, realizing the only thing in that direction is the Fates temple. Brandon must be there paying them a visit.
Santiago waits for me and Matias to make it to the edge of the shield before turning back to the castle.
“I told Alejandra I would take you to train with her and Lexi Blue today,” Santiago says.
Matias looks between us with a sour expression. “Will you stay with me?”
“Yeah of course we will.” Santiago gives him a gentle smile. In a hush tone he says to me, “His separation anxiety is getting worse.”
Matias obviously hears him and shoots him a glare over his shoulder.
“Lexi Blue is going to bring a couple of volumes from her personal collection for us to go through. Hopefully we can find something there.”
Instead of going directly inside the castle we walk to the training circles where a group of cadets are sparring.
“I hope to start training again once we are back from this trip,” Matias says with enthusiasm.
I look over at Santiago who mirrors my expression. It's probably not the best idea to have Matias train with anyone until we get that book out of him. Even simple sparring might be dangerous to whichever cadet finds themselves facing him.
We find Lexi Blue and Alejandra setting up a table with chairs and books off to the side from the training circles. Weare situated on the other side of the locker rooms keeping us out of sight from where the cadets are sparring but anyone coming in and out of the locker room can easily spot us.
“Why are you so stiff?” I ask Matias.
I noticed the posture and tension on his shoulders. He was not like this a couple of minutes ago.
“Hi,” Alejandra says to Matias in a soft tone. Her eyes move from me to Santiago. We don't get a greeting. It's more like a murmur under her breath.
“Lovely to see you too,” Santiago says with a frown. He ignores her and moves to Lexi Blue. “I brought him here as promised. Now where are the books?”
She gestures to a brown box under the table.
Lexi Blue moves towards Matias, not bothering to greet me or Santiago with more than just a head nod. She leans closer to him and says something I can’t hear from where I stand. If it was even possible, Matias becomes even more tense.
“Let’s go easy on him Lexi,” Alejandra says, then steps back at the sharp look directed her way. “Lexi Blue.” She clears her throat. “He's not comfortable tapping into his magic until he can differentiate his from the book’s.”
It's evident that Matias and Alejandra have talked about this before. Lexi Blue looks from Alejandra to Matias then waits until he nods.
“I can help you with that.” She takes his hand in hers and closes her eyes. “There it is. The dark smokey one has to be The Red Book’s magic. Yours is the other one. The silver color one.”
Matias’ eyes are open wide and staring at Lexi Blue like she grew another head.
When he doesn't react she opens her eyes. “Can’t you see it?” she asks.
He shakes his head. Lexi Blue lets out a huff of impatience.
“Let’s try this.” She gestures for him to extend his arms and allow magic to flow.
“We can get through these while they do that,” Santiago says, lifting a couple of books from the box to the table.
