Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,129
royalty, by blood.” He chuckled. “You really think they were going to take it easy on her. They are forcing this stinking world on her.” He stared at the empty spot where the table in the kitchen used to be. “They took away her Cammy, she can’t even call for help. Well, except me and to be honest, I don’t care much at the moment, I just can’t deal with her feelings right now.”
Her feelings? “Blake, you want to tell me you can feel Elena’s emotions?”
He looked at the ceiling and shook his head slightly. He was really getting annoyed. “She asked for you tonight, for Becky, Sammy, mom, anyone that knows her, but they refused.” He huffed. “They even got her birthday wrong,” he mumbled. So he did care, but wasn’t ready to show it yet.
“Yeah, it’s tomorrow, not today.”
“Just get her out of there, before I lose my mind and who knows what I will do.”
“Blake, come home. We’re staying at—”
“I’m not coming home, Dad,” he said through gritted teeth. “She’s not my rider. I’m the Rubicon for crying out loud. I can’t be tamed,” he roared with red changing his mother’s blue peacock eyes.
It was the only way I could tell Issy and Constance apart.
“Just get her out of there.” He turned around and left.
I could hear the transformation, he was becoming more silent in ways that I never imagined.
He needed to dent, but at what cost?
Elena! Robert, she needs you.
I pulled out my Cammy. “Helmut,” I spoke his name. We paired phones a couple of weeks back when Elena was still with us. If you need anything, just phone. Well, I am going to need a shit load from you old friend.
His face appeared, sleep frozen in his features. “Robert? It’s two—”
“With all do respect your highness, but what are you doing to Elena? It’s my duty to protect her and I made it clear to not push Paegeia and taking her duty as the princess hard on her. She’s not ready for that.”
“It’s not like that. She is merely learning about her duty to Paegeia.”
“Her duty! Forcing her is more like it.”
“What? No.” He shook his head.
“Don’t lie to me. Blake was here.”
His face woke up in an instant. “Blake’s back?”
“Not entirely, but he passed by, asking me to free her. Why would he use those words if she is there of her own free will?”
“What do you mean free her?”
“You tell me, Helmut.”
“Look, they told me they will take it easy on her, getting her to know all the advisers and learn about her people and kingdom. I still don’t understand why you think she needs to be freed.”
“Blake is feeling her emotions. Their bond is stronger than any of us thought. If they dent, we are going to see something we’ve never seen in all of dragon and rider history.”
“He’s feeling her emotions. She’s not trapped, she is there of her own free will.”
“By taking her Cammy away, cutting her off from the people that matter to her. That doesn’t sound a lot like free will to me, Helmut.”
“No!”
“They threw her a huge party tonight in honor of her birthday. Not one of us was invited, Helmut.”
Margerite’s face and shoulders popped up from behind her husband’s. “No, I sent out the invites. None of you replied,” Margerite said. “Elena was devastated about that.”
“Are you sure?” Helmut looked over his shoulder at Margerite. “Did you speak to her tonight?”
“I said hi, but she had so many friends around her. She enjoyed tonight, but not the way she would’ve if Becky and Sammy were there. She really looked forward to seeing them.”
“We didn’t get any invitation, Margerite.”
“I gave them to Stan—” she trailed off and stared into space; her eyes closed and her face turned into the old Margerite. When someone stepped on her children. “That fucking bastard.” She got out of the bed. I could hear her searching for something and how she finally spoke Stanley’s name.
She was right, he was a fucking bastard. Ever since he got his clutches on Elena, her old life didn’t matter to him anymore.
“You promised me this wasn’t going to happen. This thing is over. She’s coming home.”
“Robert she needs—
“No, she needs people around her that know her well. They even got her birthday wrong.”
“What!” Both Margerite and Helmut said as she was still waiting for Stan’s face to disappear.
“It’s tomorrow and they are making her go to Areeth. They’ll have to kill me first before they drag