Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,86

down her living room with the huge oak growing through it. “When you were ten, he told you the truth. You cried so much and you didn’t want to accept it. He called me and asked me to wipe it clean from your memory. He never tried it again, he was always afraid you would react the same way.”

I stopped in my tracks as I remembered that night on Interstate 40. Dad wanted to tell me about something important, he wanted to take me out to dinner but he didn’t get the chance. Then his stories of Paegeia that I couldn’t remember suddenly came back.

“Wait, what do you mean you wiped it clean?”

“I can erase some memories if needed, persuade minds if I have to.”

“You wiped away Dad telling me that I was King Albert and Queen Catherine’s daughter?” It sounded unreal.

She nodded.

“You didn’t just wipe that away, you wiped away everything he ever told me of Paegeia.”

“What?” She stared at me.

I started to pace up and down again, biting hard on the flesh inside my mouth, my hand tangled inside my hair. “I knew there had to be some explanation for why I couldn’t remember any of the details,” I murmured. I just never imagined it was something that would be so hard to swallow.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t have control over it completely if it’s someone I care for.”

I stopped in my tracks at her words. “You never cared for me, just like you never cared for Cara.”

“Don’t say that. I cried for my child every day, Elena. I still do. She was never meant to come back, but something awoke her that day. She’s not a Rubicon, she was a Thunderlight. The reason she turned into a Rubicon was because of who you are and who your dragon is. You turned into a Rubicon, because of the bond you share with Blake.”

“I don’t share a bond with him. He hates my guts,” I yelled.

She started to laugh. “How did he react when he saw you as a dragon?”

I squinted. Forcing my mind to remember when Blake ran into the cave the day Lucian died. He was shocked.

“You don’t have to tell me, I can see it on your face. A dragon always knows who his rider is.”

“No, he would’ve said something.”

“He’s dark Elena. The dragon part of him doesn’t want to be claimed, yet he saved you a couple of times, or so Lucian told me.”

I just stared at her. Lucian knew. The dream of Paul…did that really happen somehow in-between all the craziness? He was talking about Blake? He didn’t care that Paul claimed to be my rider. He didn’t care.

“It’s the good in him,” Tanya said. “The part that keeps holding on. He knows who you are, but Cara threw him off that path. I think she threw plenty of people off that path.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever wonder why everyone you met ended up staring at you?” Blake’s unfinished story jumped into my mind.

“It’s because you look just like him, Elena. You have your father’s hair and soft eyes, but your mother’s grace and beauty.”

“How did I get past the Wall?”

“You were inside Cara,” she said. “Jako found us three days after. When he found Cara, he was so happy that she was still alive. I never told him what I did or why I left. He assumed so many times that Katie’s daughter was dead and I never corrected him because I wasn’t sure if it would work.” She looked at me as I found my way back to the couch. “A couple of months passed. It was the best time of our lives. Then it was time for Cara to get her human body. She was supposed to be a little girl of five and I was with her in the bathroom when the shift came. It wasn’t a five year old girl, Elena, she was only one. Jako knew immediately what I had done and everything went downhill from there. He tried not wanting anything to do with you, but for some reason you wanted nothing to do with me and just wanted him. So yes, he was your father in so many ways, but your true father was someone so much more, Elena. Your parents wanted you so badly and both had to deal with the fact that they might never see you again.”

I shook my head fast. It was spinning with so many questions that had finally gotten their answers.