Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,100

his son’s murderer. He looked as if he actually cared for another again. His wife cupped her mouth and tears lingered in her eyes. The rest of the people, I didn’t know. My eyes left the podium where all the royals and Master Longwei sat and scanned down to the bottom row that was filled with media. All of their cameras flashed at Blake’s flame.

I shook my head in disgust. They would do anything just to get a story.

I forced my gaze on the crowd and searched for a certain group. In less than five minutes I found Becky, Sammy, George and Dean. George hugged Becky as she covered her mouth, and Sammy didn’t want to watch. Her face was hidden in Dean’s chest.

Something moved in the corner of my eye.

It was only a split second and I scanned the crowd again. It was gone, no one moved. It must’ve been my mind playing tricks on me.

I saw it this time through the corner of the other eye and my head snapped to that side of the crowd. My feet ran slowly in that direction as my eyes scanned the crowd like crazy but came back with nothing.

It moved again a couple of rows below and it was gone, just like that.

Something was coming for me and I was too slow to even comprehend what it was.

For the next couple of minutes my head jumped from side to side as if I was watching a tennis match playing in slow motion.

My heart raced a couple of beats faster every time my eye caught the movement and at last I saw its entire figure standing inside the ring, a couple of yards away from me.

It was the Reaper. He wore a cloak with a hood blocking his entire face.

He didn’t carry the long shackle but I was scared to death. I huffed at the irony of my last thought. Scared to death, I was dead and yet I still felt every emotion jolting through my body. A body I didn’t own anymore. My heart beat as if I still had one and something told me that it was my last bit of brain activity that was making this all real. I retreated slightly as he started to come near. He glided toward me and a million goose pimples and an ice cold finger ran up my spine.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as my body felt like it was turning into a block of ice, but somehow I was still retreating slowly from him. Running away might be in me somewhere, but then again nobody has ever outrun the Reaper. It was known that souls suffered dearly when they ran away from him, and after he was finally done with whatever punishment he would bestow on me, he would drag me to where I should be in the afterlife. Was I ready for this? What if I never saw Lucian or my father again?

The inside of my mouth was dry and there was no spit to swallow but I somehow managed to gulp down this dry hard lump inside my throat as he came to a halt a couple of paces before me.

I couldn’t see the face inside the hood but I knew it was something I really didn’t want to see either.

White human hands went up to his hood and he slowly lifted it from his head.

My face fell in shock and a gasp escaped my lips as I stared into the same colored eyes I saw every time I looked in the mirror.

Y LEGS WOBBLED and I found myself resting on one knee. It was him, the greatest king that had ever lived, King Albert.

My mind raced with questions, like why did they send him to fetch me? I didn’t know him, why couldn’t they send my father, or Lucian, someone I loved, who loved me.

I felt his hands touching my shoulder and arms gently. “Sweetpea, you don’t need to bow before me.”

I looked up and saw a soft, kind face staring down at me. Tears welled up in his eyes. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment.” His forehead rested gently on mine. My heart thumped as I kept staring at him.

He frowned slightly. “Do you know who I am?”

I nodded. “You’re King Albert.”

His smile disappeared immediately, the laugh lines next to his eyes vanished. I could tell he struggled to breathe. He got up awkwardly and turned away from me, walking