EVREN: Enter the Dragonette by Marian Tee Page A

single, and you can go after him without a guilty conscience.”
    I refused to show the amazing sense of relief I was feeling.  “I’m not going after anybody,” I denied with as much dignity as I could muster.
    “Is that so?”
    “Yes, it’s so.”
    “Even if I tell you that Lucian also explained your presence in our home by identifying you as his online-turned-real-time girlfriend from Australia and that you came here as an exchange student to be with him?”
    “He what?” I shrieked and immediately lost control.  Dyvian shouted my name as I fell down with horrendous speed.
    “Dyvian,” I screamed, shock and fear paralyzing my limbs.
    When I opened my eyes, I was in the Chevaliers’ garden, cradled in Lucian’s arms, and Dyvian was breathing hard in front me, his face white.
    “How could you have fainted?”  Dyvian’s tone was pained.
    I’m in Lucian’s arms.  I could feel his heart beating fast against his hard chest.  Underneath me, his arms were strong and gentle at the same time.  I’m in Lucian’s arms.  Lucian tensed against me, and realizing that I was probably too heavy for him, I struggled to get up.  A wave of dizziness hit me at my sudden movement.
    Lucian’s arms tightened.  “Later.”  His voice was unusually rough.
    “H-how—”
    “You fainted.  I caught you just in time and brought you home.”  Dyvian lifted a hand to his hair and I was surprised to see it shaking a little.
    I looked up at Lucian, whose face was white in anxiety.  “Did I seriously scare you two that much?”
    “You lost your balance a hundred feet off the ground, Deli, and you fainted.”  Dyvian shook his head.  “How could you react—it’s like fainting just because an ant bit you!”
    Now, I began to feel silly and ashamed.  “I guess I’m just not used to, well, flying.”
    “It’s good you understand that because from now on, I’m banning you from flying till you’ve had proper lessons,” Lucian informed me.
    My jaw fell open.  “Banned?”
    “Yes.  Banned.  And no arguments.”
    I studied the grimness in his face and decided that I might have a better chance of arguing with him when he wasn’t so—emotional.  “Okay.”
    Lucian’s eyes flashed.  “And I won’t change my mind.”
    I didn’t dignify that with an answer.  “I think you can put me down now.”
    Lucian didn’t say a word, but he slowly lowered me to the ground.
    I swayed a bit, but I waved them away when they immediately moved to support me.  “I can do this.”
    Lucian crossed his arms against his chest.  “Delilah?”
    “Yeah?”  I took one careful step forward and was satisfied when no dizziness assaulted my head.
    “What made you lose your balance?”
    I blinked several times, surprised at the question.  And then his words hit me and I started to smile.  I turned to Dyvian.  He was whistling and he was looking up at the darkening sky like his life depended on finding the Big Dipper.
    “You.”
    Lucian stiffened.  “Excuse me?”
    My grin widened all the more.  “Dyvian told me that you introduced me as your girlfriend.”  I batted my lashes at him.  “Honestly, Lucian, you could have told me first, don’t you think?”
    A dull color spread throughout Lucian’s beautifully shaped cheekbones.  “I beg your pardon.”  His tone was so coldly polite that he could have dubbed for Prince Charles on television with no one the wiser.  “The question had taken me by surprise during the school interview and it was the first thing that occurred to me.”
    I looked at him under my lashes.  “Really, now?”
    “Yes.”  His tone got even colder, “really.”  But his cheeks were still stained with color.  “I also gave them all the necessary documents to prove that your parents had given me legal guardianship.”
    “You know, you could have just said she was our cousin or something,” Dyvian suggested.
    Lucian opened and closed his mouth.
    Dyvian and I turned to each other and