Frostbite (The Dragonian Series Book 3) (40 page)

“What is going on with Elena?”

“They are forcing Paegeia on her. Stan took away her Cammy and that’s why the girls haven’t heard anything from her. Margerite told me that they sent all of us invitations, she gave them to Stan who didn’t…”

Lucille shook her head. “But those pictures.”

“Come on, Lucille. Every time Blake wanted to get back at them, at me, he did something stupid and made sure press was around.”

“She’s rebelling.”

“She’s been crying out for us, trying to get our attention and we just sat here, did nothing.”

“That bastard.”

“What bastard, mom?” Becky appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “And who is rebelling?”

“Come sit, honey,” Lucille said. “Rosa, can you please get the kettle going. We need coffee.”

“Not to worry, I’ll have it ready in two seconds.” Rosa disappeared.

“Mom, what is going on? Why is Sir Robert here?”

“It’s about Elena, sweetheart.”

Her face hardened the minute Lucille said her name.

“Oh, please I’m going back to bed.”

“They took away her Cammy, Becky.”

Becky froze.

“She’s been asking for all of us for a long time, and they deny her every single time,” I said.

She turned around. “What? How do you know this?”

I looked down at the table. “Blake came back and begged me to get Elena out of there. He’s connected to her in ways we’ll never understand.”

“Blake’s back?” Becky and Lucille asked.

I shook my head. “He just gave me the message, said he couldn’t deal with it and I have to get her out of there.”

“But those pictures of her having fun, with her new friends,” Becky started.

“She rebelled, probably snuck out and did the opposite of what she had to do, sweetheart.”

Becky shook her head. “She could’ve come here.” Hurt laced her eyes.

“There are guards everywhere at all the ports,” I said. “If you haven’t noticed them.”

“Sir Robert is right. For all we know, she tried,” Lucille said.

She shook her head. “The cockroaches would have said something.”

“Unless they were paid a lot of money, Becky.” I looked at her. “These people have all the money in the world to do whatever they want.”

She looked at me for a short while. I knew she thought about Elena, and whatever could be wrong. She took a deep breath, the hurt got replaced with anger. “You want to tell me that they are holding my friend captive because of what she has to learn?” Her voice rose slightly.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

She shook her head and got up just as Rosa came back with the coffee. “I need to phone George. This Stan guy is going to regret that he ever took her away with his false pretenses and everything.” She ran up the stairs.

I took a deep breath trying to calm my own anger. Becky might only be eighteen, but with those dark eyes and set mind, Stan was going to remember her for a long time to come.

“Have you told Sammy yet, she was really upset about tonight and I can’t recall her ever feeling so hurt.”

“Not yet, I came directly here after I spoke to Helmut.”

She blew out a breath. “Good, one royal on our side could get this sorted out as civilized as possible. I was imagining thunder and acid destroying a hotel to get her out of there.”

I started to laugh but it disappeared just as fast. I looked at her in the eyes. “It will come to that if Helmut doesn’t get her out, Lucille. I should’ve never let her out of my sight.”

“Robert, they promised that she could come home if this got too much. None of us knew that they would deceive us like this.”

“Still, I should’ve kept my promise.”

“Don’t worry, tomorrow is her birthday and she’ll be back with us. Being a normal teenager again.” A knock on the door made both of us jump and Becky stormed down the stairs and opened it.

“What about Elena, and who do we need to free?” George asked sleepily.

He got fast.

“Elena, they are holding her against her will. We were invited but that Stan douchebag didn’t send us the invites because we are not important.” Becky spoke fast, with anger and her hands were up in the air. “If I get my hands on him,” she mumbled.

“Calm down, Becky.” George grabbed her and pulled her to his chest. “We will get her out of there.”

It always amazed me how she never had to fully explain herself to him. He just understood what she was going through and would do anything in his power to fix it.

They came over to sit at the table. He greeted me with an open hand and gave Lucille two kisses on the cheek.

“Blake came back,” Becky told him

“He’s here?” he asked me and looked around.

“No, he left again. He just told me about Elena—

“He feels her, doesn’t he?” George interrupted.

“Do you, too?” Becky asked him with awe written over her face.

“Not like that, but yes. When you are upset about something, I can sense it if we are not together. I got woken up from it, a second before my Cammy rang.”

“Frawsome,” she yelled and we all chuckled.

“I don’t understand. This only happened a short while ago. How did Blake—”

“Their bond is stronger,” Lucille said, “and I guess in some way that’s the thing that scares him the most. He can hear and feel what she is going through already. He doesn’t want to succumb to that.”

“It’s exactly that,” I said.

“They’re lucky they haven’t dented yet,” George said and we all gave him a confused look... “Cause they will deal with us, and not him.”

We got what he said, and laughed. This would’ve never happened if Blake succumbed. “We keep this from Elena, for now. She has a lot to deal with, she doesn’t need to know about all of this and what Blake feels.”

Adrienne Woods was born and raised in South Africa, where she still resides on the East side of Johannesburg with her husband and two little girls. She's been writing for the past four years and in her free time she likes to review books of new and upcoming authors.

www.authoradriennewoods.com