Firebolt

Chapter 18

AFTER SCHOOL, KNOTS twisted violently in my stomach. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I fought the urge to puke, not knowing what to expect with Blake's Latin lesson. He’d told Sammy to have me meet him in the library. I cringed, thinking back to how I had ogled him the first time we met like some star-struck idiot blinded by his unnatural beauty. I was such a dork when it came to things like that.

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself as I entered the large room. I saw him sitting deep in thought and playing with a lighter at one of the tables. What was it with him and fire? Don't stare, Elena, blared in my head. Walking up to him, I silently recited my choreographed greeting. Should I say “Hi, Blake” in a chirpy voice, but then he would know that he had some kind of an effect on me. If I said it in a dull tone, he would think I was depressed. When the time came, it was worse than I’d imagined. I was speechless, I couldn't even say hello like a normal person.

“Io, Elena,” he started.

Huh? I frowned, trying to think what the hell he’d just said.

He rambled a couple of other strange words, and I realized he was speaking Latin. He’d asked me something, but I had no clue. An awkward silence lingered for a couple of minutes. He stared at me with his smoldering blue eyes as if staring straight into my soul. It made my heart skip a beat. I didn't like it.

When he spoke again, I shook my head. I assumed it was his way of rebelling against having to tutor me.

“What?” My voice disappeared.

He seemed irritated by my reply and answered in Latin again. His chair made a horrible screeching sound as he pushed it back. Heads shot up from the noise of the chair. He rose, said something else with a nod, and headed for the door.

“Blake, please,” I yelled after him, and he stopped. “I really need your help. I don't want to fail.”

He just stood there with his back facing me.

“Please,” I begged again, hoping it was working.

He growled and turned back to face me, his upper lip curling up. It made him look extra hot, and I could hear a couple of girls nearby sighing.

“Fine,” he said. “But if you’re going to cry, I'm done.” He threw himself hard onto the same chair he’d sat in a few moments ago. I cringed as he pulled himself, chair and all, closer to the table. The librarian frowned at him, her glasses resting precariously on her nose.

He started with the easy stuff; the words that were similar to English.

Eventually, we switched over to conjugating verbs and recited words like confirmare, which meant to confirm, straight through to vocare, which was to call. We recapped pronouns.

When he started to use an example with the word “give”, it was beginning to make sense for the first time; however he wasn't kidding about the crying part. He was mean and made me recite each word a million times until I pronounced it correctly. He would flinch if I mispronounced the word as if it was insulting him. I sighed, trying really hard not to scream.

“You struggle with verbs the most. For dragons, it's easy. We are born to speak Latin where humans find it difficult. In Latin, the ending of the verb changes every time. The ending is crucial, as it tells you tense, person, and number,” he said, counting with his three fingers to make it easy for me to understand. I had already forgotten what the first finger represented. I was lost in his eyes.

Snap out of it, Elena, the voice inside my head said through gritted teeth.

I forced myself back to the present, while he explained when using singular and plural, you always change the verb. I struggled to keep up and felt guilty when I caught myself staring at his mouth. His lips made me feel like I wanted to grab and kiss him. I felt as if I was already cheating on Lucian and my head felt like it was about to explode when, lucky for me, he called it a day.