All I have to say about this chapter .. be prepared. Shiz goes down.

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"What do you mean she's adopted?" I asked after a long, painful silence. My lips were pursed tightly together as I stared at my mother's face. It was literally one secret or lie after another.

"She.." Mom sighed, running her hand through her hair. "She's adopted, Faye. What else is there to it, besides that?"

"Why would she go searching for a dragon if she's adopted?" I wondered out loud, casting her a glance once more before moving my eyes from her and to the wall. "I mean..if she doesn't have the blood, why would she go through all of that for nothing?"

Mom looked down at her knees, her face scrunched up with guilt. "Because she doesn't know she's adopted."

I was taken aback by her words, my mouth dropping slightly as I cast my gaze to her. "B-but.. why would you keep that from her? How did she not figure it out?"

"We were the same age, four, when she was adopted. We looked extremely similar, enough so that we could pull off being twin sisters. So when your grandparents adopted her, they had me promise to never tell her the truth. She doesn't remember being adopted, despite being able to technically. When she didn't find her dragon we used the excuse that she was a Plain Blood, since it was the most reasonable."

I actually felt really bad for Lucy's mother at this point, and I didn't know whether I should or not. Her whole life, she grew up in this family full of true fairytales and bedtime stories thinking she was born into it. She discovers that she doesn't get to be apart of it because of some magical genetic mishap, when really, she was never really born into it.

"So.. she had no magic in her? Nothing skipped?"

Mom shook her head. "She's pure human.."

"Why wouldn't you tell her?" I whispered, looking up at her while biting my lip. "Can't you imagine how she felt when she was told that her family's blood, hundreds of years old, just somehow skipped her?"

Mom shrugged and looked down. "Of course I've thought about it, sweetheart. I sometimes think it's better if she finds out she's adopted rather than her genetics skipping her bloodline."

"At least she'd have a better explanation rather than the Plain Blood," I added quietly, fumbling with my sleeve. "Being a Plain Blood is probably worse, because you're born into a family with the magic and dragons .. and yet the magic and that stuff just .. skips you .."

"It's very rare," Mom told me, starting to play with my hair. "There's a record of only five people ever having it in the world."

"Do you think she's figured it out by now, then?"

"I'm sure she has, Faye. Which probably makes her hate me even more."

I try to put myself in Lucy's mother place. If I were to find out I wasn't really born into my family, but instead adopted and raised to think I was born into it .. then to find old records that I'm not their real daughter. I would probably be devastated, hurt, and angry. I would ask myself why I was lied to my whole life, why I was put through the pain of not finding my dragon.. I drew my knees up to my chest and closed my eyes, shivering at just how terrible it sounded.

Mom pulled me into a comforting hug, and I hugged her back tightly. I don't blame my Mom, exactly, it wasn't her fault she was told to keep it to herself. Either way, I still think things happen for a reason. Even if the reason is never good.

Suddenly the door slammed open and Lucy and Quince raced in, breathing heavily and red-faced. They stopped right in front of me and Mom, looking scared and upset.

"What's going on?" Mom immediately went into her leader mode and I watched as she stood up, straightening and looking at my best friends with a serious expression.

"I-it's Jordan," Quince managed to get out shakily, her eyes starting to well. She glanced at me, her eyes flashing with a look I saw in them when she learned of Jen's death. I knew then that something was very, very wrong.

I got to my feet and walked over to her, wrapping my hand around hers and giving it a gentle squeeze. "It's alright, Quince," I said softly, my voice encouraging and firm. "You're alright. What's wrong with Jordan?"

Quince choked back a sob and looked up at me. "She's dead."

--

Numbness. That's all I felt as I was darting down the halls of the hospital to find my sister. I felt no pain, no despair, no grief.

I felt nothing. 

But that didn't stop me from trying to find her, to see her body for myself. If Jordan was really dead, then I would kill whoever killed her. I would show no mercy and I would not stop until I am satisfied with my revenge.

"Faye!" Fingers curled around my arm, jerking me back into the person. 

"Stop!" I whip around and snatch my arm away from their grip, ready to explode at them for touching me. For preventing me to find her. 

Lucy held her hands up, giving me her calm gaze. "Jordan's alive, Faye," she said quietly. "While you were running around like a maniac, we found her room."

I froze, my blood going cold. But not a bad cold, a relieved, shocked, cold. "S-she's alive?"

Lucy nodded her head, her black hair falling around her shoulder. "Yes, she is. But there's also bad news."

Just when my hopes go up, too. "What?"

"She's in a coma, Faye. They brought her back to life .. but she's in a coma state for .. well, until her body and mind are done getting over the trama."

I ran my hand through my hair and began to pace in front of Lucy as her amber eyes watched me carefully, never leaving me. "How did this happen in the first place? Tell me everything."

Lucy took a deep breath. "Okay, basically what happened was this: I was out flying with Quince, when we heard a loud scream. It sounded like your sister's, so we went to see what was going on. We had to walk on foot since the dragons couldn't get into the thickness of these forests we heard her screams. When we found her she .. was being attacked by .."

"By who?" I demanded, snapping my head up at her as I paced. My eyes met hers and she bit her lip softly, hesitating. "Who, Lucy?"

"Faye, you have to hear me out-"

"I said who!"

Lucy grabbed my arms, stopping me from pacing and looking into my eyes. "Faye, you need to be extremely open-minded about what I'm about to tell you alright? This is not something you can make a move on when you hear about it," she tells me seriously, her voice hard and firm.

I felt my hands shaking, and she must have to because her hands moved down to mine. She gave them a gentle squeeze and searched my face, awaiting my answer. I sighed shakily and ran a hand through my messy hair, then nodded. "O-okay."

Lucy tugged at her bottom lip with her teeth and took a deep breath. "Jordan was attacked by another dragon rider, but not one of Dragon's Cove."

I don't understand why Lucy was telling me this. I knew there were rogue dragon riders, but why would they attack Jordan? "I have a feeling there's something else to that."

Lucy nodded. "Do you remember Livius?"

"Yeah."

"Livius..isn't an ordinary dragon rider."

"Gee, you think?" I growled, moving my hands from hers again and nervously wiping them on my jeans. "Lucy, why are you taking so long to tell me?"

Lucy covered her eyes for a long moment and breathed in deeply, then removed her hands. "Faye .. Livius is the rider of a crystal dragon."

--

Do I feel guilty about all these cliffhangers?

Nope. 

-Grace xx