Summer of Frost (Forever Fae #3)(39)
Drake’s wolfish smile gleamed brightly, showing off his perfectly straight, white teeth. I’m sure he had the women in the Summer Court falling all over their feet for him. “You want proof, I’ll give it to you. One, you secretly play the harp, and by the way, I love the song you wrote for me. You usually play it to lure me into the dream realm, but since you can’t remember it now it’s kind of a moot point.” My eyes went wide in shock and he smiled. Only a couple of people know about my love of the harp.
“Two,” he continued, “you love to travel. You love your home in the Winter Court, but you desire the chance to see the world, our land and the mortal one. We spent many of our dreams travelling to exotic places together, and lastly, I know your guardian calls you ‘ai dulin,’ his little bird.”
Hearing that about my guardian made me want to believe, but I couldn’t seem to wrap my brain around the truth. Drake took my hands and turned them palm up, tracing along the gash lines on both hands. I never noticed they were there until then. “What are those from?”
He kissed both wounds and said, “These marks are from your unbound courage that you willingly gave up to help save your land. You sacrificed giving your power to the dark sorcerer to get the sacred scroll. You see, we found a way to defeat him, but Alston helped him get away with the scroll after you sacrificed your own blood. You may not believe me, but use your truth seeking abilities on him. Search for it, but do it discreetly. We all fear of what he’ll do if he knows you doubt him.”
“He would never hurt me.”
“He better not,” Drake added darkly. “It would only add to the different ways I planned on killing him.” The dream realm suddenly shifted, alerting me that our dream was almost over. His eyes widened and he frantically took my face in his hands and kissed me gently. “The dream is about over. You’re smart and cunning, Sorcha. Listen to your heart. If you doubt me, and I’m sure you do, go to Oren in your next dream. He will tell you what I say is true.”
As my body began to fade out of the dream realm, Drake took me in his arms and whispered in my ear, “I love you, beautiful, and I’m going to find you.”
“Sorcha, wake up!” Alston uttered, shaking me by the shoulders.
Groaning, I rolled over. “Leave me alone. I just went to sleep.”
“Yeah, about fifteen hours ago,” he informed me. “I was getting worried about you.”
Rubbing my eyes to clear them, I gazed up into Alston’s serious face. The dream slammed into my mind and I tensed, but immediately let it go. “I guess I was tired,” I said, yawning.
When he reached up to brush the hair off my face, I latched onto his hand and held it to my face. I had to know for sure if he was telling the truth. “Alston,” I murmured, trying hard to concentrate. “Do you think my family will come to get us soon?”
“I don’t know, baby, but I’m sure it’ll be soon. Until then, we should just enjoy ourselves here.” His eyes showed sincerity, but something lacked behind them. What really concerned me was that I couldn’t feel any truth from his words … nothing. It was all blank, like something was blocking me. Interesting, and not what I was expecting, I thought.
“Well, let’s not worry about all of that right now. I made you breakfast, and I thought we could explore the land for a while, and then maybe explore this bedroom a little more when we come back. I’m dying to feel those legs wrapped around me.” Drake’s warning in my dream rang clear in my mind, and my heart lurched with guilt just thinking about Alston and I in bed together. How was I going to keep my distance until I found out the truth? Could Alston really betray me like that? I wondered.
“I need to get dressed,” I pointed out, hoping it would change the subject.
He grinned and tilted his head toward the closet. “There should be some clothes in the closet for you. Your armor is in there as well, but I don’t think that’ll be appropriate in this world.”
“I would think not,” I teased, hoping it didn’t sound forced. “Just give me a few minutes to get dressed, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“As you wish, Princess.” He kissed me hard against the lips, and before he left the room he looked back once and smiled. My heart ached with doubt, but I knew I only needed to get through the day before night came when I could find Oren. If there was anyone I could trust, it would be him.
Before going to sleep the night before, I was pulled in two different directions. I wanted to keep searching for Sorcha, but there was a part of me that wanted to try and sleep to see if Sorcha would come to me. I had a feeling she would, and luckily so, she did even if it was unconsciously done. I jumped out of bed and hastily put on my gear before banging on Oren’s door. He answered it in a matter of seconds.
“What happened?” he asked, hopeful. “Did she come to you?”
“Yeah, so get dressed. We have more searching to do.”
Ten minutes later we were entering a portal into the mortal realm … again. “I’m running out of ideas, Your Highness. After these next two stops I’m not going to know where else to look,” Oren informed me.
“Let’s just hope one of them is where they’re at. She’s been alone with him now for two days. There’s no telling what that bastard is doing with her.”