She stepped back. “And have the Rubicon on my tail, no thanks.”
“Oh, you would be so lucky,” Lucian said.
“Haha,” Mia mocked with sarcasm and squinty eyes as she walked to the door. She yelled something in Latin, and Lucian just stared at her.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing for your ears.”
My stomach fluttered as he said that. I couldn’t help thinking that Mia must have thrown something about the Rubicon back in his face.
I walked to my towel that was sitting on the first stone step and wiped my face.
“You are getting better.”
“I beg to differ. She is really vicious.”
Lucian laughed. “Mia is not by far one of the best. I feel sorry for you if my dad is getting the last tutor on his list.”
“Why? What is wrong with them?”
“Oh, nothing. She is just the best Dragonian in Paegeia. She has sworn her oath to protect the ancients. They may not claim a dragon, but they handpicked her to be the one to slay the Rubicon if he turned.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you lucky that you exist, Elena?”
“Haha.” I pushed him, and he stumbled slightly to the left, but his balance was perfect. “So what did you want to show me?”
He squinted. “I don’t know if you are ready for this.”
“Just show me.”
“Okay, if you pee in your pants don’t blame me.”
I rolled my eyes and followed him into the castle. I wanted to go for a shower, but Lucian told me not to. This was going to become part of my training.
We reached the North Wing of the castle and down the one dark hallway at the end was a black glass door. He punched in a couple of keys and the door swooped open. We stepped through on a steel ledge that was right in the middle height of an enormous room.
I stepped closer toward Lucian, who stood by the railing and looked down.
Below us, a few floors down, was a green room with some sort of obstacle course with huge green blocks scattered around the room.
“What is this?”
“My simulator. Dad got it for me when I trained to tame the beast.”
My lips curved as he called the Rubicon a beast too.
I followed Lucian down the steel steps. Our footsteps drummed through the metal and eventually we reached the bottom of the stairs. The blocks looked much bigger standing among them than what they were, looking down on them.
He took me to a small room with a high-tech system. The table sat against the gray wall and computers with pads filled with buttons covered the surface. Against the other wall was a silver cage with suits, headgear that had visors and gloves.
He walked to the cage, opened it and grabbed a headgear. Gel pads hung on thin wires. He brought it to me. It almost resembled a helmet with a visor, but it didn’t have a top part. He showed me the gel pads you hooked on the side of your temples. He then put a visor on my head that shifted over my eyes like a pair of goggles.
“What is this?”
“Watch on the screen so you get the idea first, otherwise you might get a heart attack.”
