Summer of Frost (Forever Fae #3)(34)

Wide-eyed, my heart hammered in my chest as I stared at Drake, who tried to hide his panic. “You lie!” he yelled half-heartedly. “She’ll never be able to forget about me. I’m in her blood, and no matter where I have to go or what I have to do I’ll always find her and bring her back.”

“Not this time I’m afraid,” the dark sorcerer bragged.

My heart hammered in my chest and my mind was reeling. I could feel Alasdair’s emotions through touching him and everything was so jumbled together, but the main emotion I felt was doubt. What did he doubt? I tried to concentrate on finding the truth of it, but his grip was bruising and constricting as he held me to him. I could barely breathe much less think. Gasping, I clawed and struggled in his arms.

Grunting with trying to keep his hold on me, the dark sorcerer growled in my ear, “You’re a feisty thing, aren’t you? I think our Alston is going to have his hands full. All right, it’s time to say good-bye to your prince, my sweet vixen.”

“Drake!” I yelled. The moment I opened my mouth, the dark sorcerer forced the hot, silvery liquid down my throat. Choking, I tried to spit out as much as I could, but it was too late. So many things happened at once. Drake lunged for me, but I was quickly thrown into Alston’s arms and whirled backwards. The world began to spin as I was whisked away from Drake, away from my life, and away from my memories.

I remembered screaming Drake’s name, and watching in slow motion as he tried to grab me before all went black, and before I lost … myself.





“Sorcha!” In the blink of an eye she was gone, taken from me as I stood there helpless.

The dark sorcerer’s laugh echoed in my ear as I turned around to face him. “Oh, don’t look so sad, little Prince. At least she’s alive,” he taunted jokingly.

“Where is she?” I demanded, pulling my sword and advancing on him.

“Oh, I’d say she’s in Alston’s arms in the mortal realm somewhere. Who knows really? I didn’t care to ask.”

“You son of a bitch! I will find her,” I swore wholeheartedly. I was only a few steps away, sword in hand, when the dark sorcerer slowly turned into his undefeatable shadowy self.

“Good luck with that. Tell Ariella that I’ll be waiting for her. I have so many great things planned for her and me.”

“Coward!” I yelled, as he vanished into the shadows of the forest.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I screamed at myself. Stripping out of my clothes, I had no choice but to transform and fly back to the Summer Court. Usually, I couldn’t change back so quickly after turning into the dragon, but with the anger coursing through my body I knew that it’d be easy. Sure enough I felt the change begin as soon as I concentrated on it. When my wings unfurled from my back, I was off. I couldn’t think of anything except finding Sorcha.

When the Summer Palace came into view, I bellowed out an ear-splitting wail as I approached. Everyone came running out of the palace, hollering and jumping up and down in excitement. Little did they know how I failed and that I was alone. Once I came into view and they saw I was alone, everyone grew panicked … Oren especially.

Landing, I changed back immediately and Finn, my second in command, brought over a robe to drape over my shoulders. At that point, modesty was the least of my concern, only Sorcha was.

“Where is she?” Oren yelled. “I can’t hear her. What the hell is going on?”

The exertion of the flight had me exhausted and I could barely catch my breath enough to speak. “She’s been taken,” I growled with anger, anger at myself.

Everyone gasped and put their hands over their mouths in shock. My father, King Oberon, spoke up. “Everyone inside, we can’t do this out here.”

Hastily, everyone congregated in the throne room waiting for the details of our botched mission. Finn brought me a set of clothes so I could change out of the robe. Dressing quickly, I took a deep, steady breath before explaining my failure. I glanced at Oren out of the corner of my eye and his whole body shook with pent up rage. He was scowling at me, and I knew that any moment he was going to explode. I didn’t know what a guardian bond felt like, but I could assume it was just as great as my bond with Sorcha … strong.

“Everything went fine until it came time to head home. The scroll was in our grasp, but the dark sorcerer intercepted us.” Murmurs and shouts erupted from the crowd. Some saying it was a fool’s errand while others argued that it had to be done.

“Quiet!” I hollered, my voice booming through the room. “We don’t have much time. Anyway, the dark sorcerer appeared and apprehended Sorcha. He took the scroll and forced some kind of memory erasing potion down her throat. So now she’s in the mortal realm without any memory of me in her life whatsoever.”

The expressions were grave, and for a moment I felt hopeless until a voice spoke out behind me. “Forgive me, Your Highness.” I turned to see Grayce, our healer, step forward. “May I have permission to speak?” he asked. My father and I both nodded, so he continued to step forward. “When it comes to the infamous Four princesses, I’ve learned that not all things go as planned with them. They’re strong, and even though some magic works against them, I know it wouldn’t be enough to deter them.”

“What are you saying, Grayce?” I asked, confused. “That maybe the potion didn’t work?”