Summer of Frost (18 page)

“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?”

He shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it worked,
especially since she’s in the mortal realm. We are all weaker in
that world, but I know Sorcha’s spirit. If anything, the potion
will only be temporary.”

Relief flowed through me, but until it wore
off she was still susceptible to Alston’s advances and the dangers
of being around him. If she got her memories back before I found
her there was no telling what he would do to her.

“How do you know she’s in the mortal realm,
son?” my father asked.

“Because he told me, and it makes perfect
sense. You see, once Sorcha gave her blood, the dark sorcerer had
instant access to her power. He didn’t need her anymore, but
someone else did, someone that turned against us,” I said, peering
over at Oren. Sarette was by his side, standing frozen in horror.
Her wish to have her cousin alive was about to come true, but he
was also dead once I found him.

When I glanced back at my father, his brows
were furrowed in confusion. “Who else was there that would want to
take her, son?”

“Alston of the Winter Court took her. We
thought he was dead after the battle, but he wasn’t. He was hiding
out in the woods when Sorcha and I found him. He made a deal with
the sorcerer, and in return he took her to the mortal realm so she
couldn’t be found. With the memories of me and everything that’s
happened erased out of her mind, he could feed her lie after lie
and she wouldn’t know the truth.”

Sarette’s high-pitched wail caught
everyone’s attention. “He wouldn’t do that! He would never betray
our court!” I knew it had to be hard to find out that a close
family member was a traitor, but at the moment, I couldn’t bring
myself to feel sympathy for her.

“Be that as it may,” I snapped at her. “Your
cousin is indeed alive, and he
did
betray your court, the
whole Land of the Fae as a matter of fact. He has Sorcha in the
mortal realm, and there’s no telling what’s going to happen to her
if we don’t find her.”

Oren tried to console her, but she pulled
away from him and ran out of the throne room. Oren then began to
speak, “I know Alston, and I know his ways. If she’s lost her
memories he’s going to manipulate her into thinking something else,
and whatever it is, he’s going to make it seem like she can’t come
home. If he steps back in the Land of the Fae he knows he’s dead.
This was the perfect way to get Sorcha and disappear for good. His
obsession with her is lethal. He’ll do anything to keep her to
himself.”

“Where would he take her?” I asked
impatiently.

Oren shrugged helplessly. “There are so many
places they used to go together. It could be anywhere, but I have
some good guesses.”

“Well, then that’s where we’ll start. We
leave immediately, Guardian,” I commanded. “I’m not going to stop
until I find her.”

“Neither am I,” Oren agreed, coming to my
side.

Oren and I both turned to leave, but stopped
when we heard the one question I dreaded someone asking. “How are
we going to defeat the dark sorcerer now without the scroll?” Finn
asked.

My father sighed, eyed me wearily, and
frowned. “We will find another way. There has to be another way.” I
knew my father didn’t believe it, but we still had to make sure our
people knew there was hope. I could only pray there was another way
to defeat the sorcerer.

Dressed in regular clothes, Oren and I were
ready to begin our search in the mortal realm. “How long do you
think it’ll take Sorcha to get her memories back?” Oren asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’ll find a
way to help her. So, where are we going to look first?” I asked
him.

Instead of answering, he began forming the
portal. When he was done, he stepped through and I followed him
into the bustling streets of Paris. “Really, Oren?” I questioned
doubtfully. “I didn’t take Alston for the romantic type.”

Oren grunted. “He wasn’t. He just tried to
make Sorcha think he was. He was so desperate for her attention
that he brought her here, and other places, in hopes she would fall
in love with him.”

“Did it ever work?”

Oren shook his head. “Not really. For a
time, I think she was in love with him, but once she met you she
started to pull away from him. He didn’t like it and started trying
to hold on to her harder. Sorcha isn’t the type to be claimed by
any man, but in your case I’m sure she’d reconsider. Even now, with
you out of her memories, she’s still not going to love him like
that. However, she
is
going to remember him the way he was
before he went possessive on her. They had more of a physical
relationship than an emotional one.”

Abruptly, I turned to him, growling. “That
is the last thing I want to think about right now!”

“I know,” Oren agreed calmly. “But if she
still thinks they’re lovers, then you need to be prepared for what
we might find. We don’t know how their relationship is going be out
here.”

Not thinking clearly, I punched the side of
the building we were passing in frustration. I only wished it was
Alston’s face. Part of the building crumbled on impact, leaving a
huge dent in the side. Wide-eyed, I looked around at the people who
stopped to stare at me.

“We might need to go or I’m going to get
arrested and put in a lab.”

Oren agreed. “Good idea. Next time, don’t
try to knock down a building. We’re trying to be discreet, and
anyway, I don’t sense Sorcha here at all.”

“Neither do I,” I mumbled wearily. Once we
got into a deserted alleyway, Oren made another portal. “Where to
this time?” I asked.

Oren sighed and answered, “To another one of
Alston’s many places he liked to lure in Sorcha.”