Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,88
gotten the chance to tell you.” She sniffed hard and turned around to stir the brew again. “How did he die?”
“It was a rainy day. We were fleeing again….” Pausing to think about how stubborn and hateful I’d been toward him every time he made us move, I didn’t finish that sentence. I hated myself for that. “Fox found us, he caused a car accident. Dad transformed for the first time in front of me. I never knew what he was.”
She gave me a sad chuckle while shaking her head softly. “Metallic dragons are so good at hiding their true form.”
I imagined Lucian, how he would have acted when he realized Blake was my dragon, not just my dragon but my dent.
“He struggled to accept it, Elena. But before he left, he’d made peace with it.”
I looked at Tanya who was staring at me. “You can read minds?”
She laughed. “No, your mom wanted to know if I could read minds too on so many occasions.” She filled a cup with juice and placed it in front of me. “She used to ponder things, you carry the same look as her, you know. It’s really not that hard to know what you are thinking.”
“I dreamt about her.”
Emotion left her face as she looked at me. “You dreamt about Katie?”
I nodded.
She huffed. “It doesn’t surprise me. Sometimes our loved ones who are no longer with us guide us to the truth in our dreams.”
“Why didn’t they tell Sir Robert?”
“That was my fault. I was sure that he was with whoever was going to betray your father. They didn’t share a dent.”
“If that was what you thought, you don’t know him one bit. He loved the king, he would’ve done anything for him.”
“We had our differences, Elena. We could never see eye to eye, it blinded me then. I know now that Robert would never have done anything to hurt Albert. What they did to Robert and still do, Albert would turn in his grave if he knew.”
“How do you know that?”
“Know what?”
“What they are doing to him?”
She smiled again. “I might live here, but we do hear about everything that is going on inside Paegeia. Not letting your father share the news about you with his dragon is the second thing I will never forgive myself for, Elena.”
“What is the first?”
“Breaking my sister’s promise. That I would treasure her child as if she was my own. That I would watch over her and enjoy every milestone, every birthday that she wouldn’t.”
“You know how she died?”
Tanya nodded and quickly wiped away another tear. “I felt it that night.”
“What?”
“I didn’t know what was going on, but Jako did. I was withering in pain. If your mother was still alive, I wouldn’t have been able to return to Paegeia. She bound me with her life to never come back until the right time. The bond vanished the minute she died.”
“Nobody ever suspected Goran.”
She shook her head. “He was their most trusted friend, Elena. Your mom even asked him to make her a coward’s potion so that whoever would betray them might think she’d died and leave her. She tried everything in her power to be reunited with you.”
Bastard. I closed my eyes trying to paint a picture of my mom and her wanting me so badly. There were so many blanks that would never be filled.
“Look who’s awake.” Cheng’s voice came from behind me.
I turned around and looked at him. He gave me a hug and it felt nice. “You finally got your answers?”
“Just not the ones I wanted.”
“We can go home, Elena. You found out what your foretelling means.”
“I can’t claim Blake, Cheng.”
“Elena?” Tanya’s tone was harsh.
“No, I can’t claim him. I don’t want to claim him. You have no idea what he is like, and I’m not going to kill the one thing that knows me better than I know myself.”
“Elena. Don’t do this,” Cheng begged softly.
“No Cheng, Blake is the last person that deserves to be claimed.”
“It’s already started.”
We both looked at Tanya. “Cheng told me that they have sedated him. If that is the truth, there is no way she could feel it.”
“Feel what!”
Tanya smiled. “Just shows you how strong your bond is.”
“Again with this bond crap. I hate him, and I’ll always hate him. Cara is not going to die because of him. I refuse to do that.”
I got up.
“Elena?” Cheng’s voice was close to me.
“Don’t, let her come to terms with it in her own time,” Tanya said just