Frostbite (The Dragonian, #3) - Adrienne Woods Page 0,76
up a front desk.
A young man slept behind the desk in a chair. He jumped when Cheng touched his shoulder and barely caught the table as his chair started to fall backward.
“Sorry, we just wanted to know if you have a room for us.”
“Jeepers, sir,” he said and I gave him a look.
That voice, it couldn’t be. It sounded just like the guy inside the Sacred Cavern. How was this possible?
“Can I help you miss?” He looked at me after he gave Cheng two room keys.
“No,” I said and followed Cheng up the stairs.
He laughed. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
I gave a huff and smiled slightly. “Something like that. Is it just me or does this place feel a bit out of date?”
“Elena, it’s fine. We’ll be fine.”
I nodded as we ascended to the top floor. “Here, you can have 301, I’ll take 300. If you need anything, just yell. I’m sure the walls are thin enough.”
“You sure?”
We both laughed.
“Goodnight, Elena.”
“Night Cheng.”
I opened the door and walked into this old room with white walls covered in flowery wallpaper.
Everything else was wood. It was cold and I pulled off the blanket after I lit the lantern with my breath. Ever since I’d seen Sammy do it, I’d wanted to try it. The lights didn’t work at all, but at least the water in the bathroom was hot.
A knock on the door made me jump. When I opened it I found nobody but my luggage. This place was getting creepier by the minute.
I took a long bath after I made sure the door was locked and just wished for all of this to be over. I had no idea what I was going to do if I couldn’t go back to Dragonia. Worse, what am I going to do if they send me back to the other side?
To never be able to come back. How was I going to hide my dragon form? All these questions stayed with me, because I knew there was no way I would be able to find what could claim Blake and what my foretelling meant.
I needed to find a way for the council to never find me again. To hide, like an outcast the way Tanya had been sounded like my only option. But what about Cheng? I should’ve never dragged his dragon ass on this mission with me.
The bath warmed me up. It was weird how hot George and Blake always felt, but how cold I was.
There were a lot of things that didn’t make any sense but then again, it could be the differences between male and female dragons. I still knew so little about them.
When I got out, I dressed myself in the warmest pajamas I owned. I pulled on four pairs of socks because my feet took forever to warm up, and slipped them into a soft pair of wool slippers.
I grabbed the blanket again when I stepped out of the hot bathroom and into the cold room. There was a fire place, but what I knew of starting a fire was dangerous and this guest house was doing everything in its power not to crash down to the ground as it was.
The bed was big, cold and hard. It made a squeaky sound as I climbed in and I read Lucian’s foretelling again. Why couldn’t he have just written the answer in here, then none of this would’ve happened?
I finally managed to fall asleep and woke up the next day to the smell of fresh bread. I got dressed and found Cheng at one of the wooden tables downstairs. He was having a huge breakfast and my stomach growled as I took a seat in front of him.
“Sleep well?”
“Yeah, just cold.”
He frowned. “You’re a Rubicon dragon, Elena.”
“Tell me about it.”
He chuckled.
Around nine we handed back our keys and left the tavern. The drive wasn’t that long but it took us about four hours to get to where we wanted to be.
We parked the Range Rover at a safe place and grabbed our tents and backpacks as if we were going on a hike.
The detour to the Acker Woods was long and we needed to be prepared for anything. We passed a couple of meadows and took another path that led through tall grass. I flinched a bit because I could hear things crashing through the brush a couple of paces away from us.
“Just walk, Elena. They can sense we are dragons. I promise you they won’t attack.”