Summer of Frost (24 page)

Backing up from the invisible shield, I
spread my arms open in invitation. “You don’t want to kill her, you
fool. This is about me. It’s always been about me, and your
jealousy over the fact that the one woman you want is destined to
be with me. You’re a coward hiding behind the dark sorcerer’s evil,
and what’s worse is that you feel like a man apprehending her when
she’s at her weakest. You’d be shitting yourself right now if she
had her powers.”

He snarled. “I would rather see her dead
than in your arms. If that means I have to hide behind walls to
have her, then I will. She’s mine!” The knife touched her skin
again, making her grimace in pain. Only one slight jab and that
iron would flow through her veins and kill her. I had to do
something.

“Why don’t we fight for her then?” I asked,
ready and determined to end it quickly. “Whoever wins gets her.
Unless you’re too much of a chicken shit to fight me.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Sorcha shouted in
disbelief.

Alston ignored her and narrowed his eyes at
me, contemplating my offer. “How do I know Oren won’t try to steal
Sorcha away if I win? How do I know you’ll keep up the
bargain?”

“You have my promise, you worthless
traitor.”

Alston chuckled, and thankfully dropped the
knife from the Sorcha’s throat, although he still held her in a
vice-like grip against his chest. “You really are an arrogant dick,
you know that. I need you to also promise that no one will come
searching for me and Sorcha after all of this is over.”

Oren grabbed my arm, and hissed in my ear,
“Are you crazy? Either you
are
very arrogant and stupid, or
you’re extremely confident. If you fail, we lose her. Think
carefully, Your Highness, because if you lose I will
not
let
him take her. You condemn us both to death with your promise.”

Promises were sacred with our people, and
once you made one you had to uphold it. If you didn’t there would
be consequences, mostly resulting in death. Keeping my eyes on
Alston and Sorcha, I leaned over to Oren and whispered, “Trust
me.”

Oren scoffed in outrage, and forced himself
to back away. Sarette was nowhere to be seen, and we had planned it
that way. We didn’t want her appearing until the time was right.
Impatiently, I announced, “Do you accept the challenge, or are you
going to hide? What better way is there to prove how much you want
her by fighting me? We both know her very well, Alston. She doesn’t
like weak men. You’ll never get her love if you cower behind your
fear.”

Sorcha’s lethal gaze could’ve killed me
where I stood, and in that moment I was glad she didn’t have her
powers. She obviously didn’t approve of my methods, but I had to do
something to get that knife away from her throat.

Alston glared at me for a few hard minutes,
and then finally relented. “I accept,” he answered, slowly
releasing Sorcha from his grip.

Although, what happened next was definitely
a Sorcha move and one I should’ve expected. She punched Alston
square in the nose, causing blood to spray out and splatter across
the ground. “I don’t accept!” she snapped angrily, glaring at both
me and her blood-drenched captor. “How dare you both negotiate my
freedom in front of me? I can fight my own battles with or without
my magic. Never have I
ever
needed a man to fight for me,
and it sure as hell isn’t going to start today.” Directing her
venom to Alston, she said, “If you want me, you’re going to have to
fight
me
, not Drake.”

“No!” I ordered forcefully.

“And …” she began, holding up a hand to cut
me off. “If I lose, I will willingly stay in the mortal realm with
Alston.”

Alston gleamed at the new proposition, and
immediately set his hungry eyes on her. “Sorry, Prince Drake, but I
believe the princess has offered me a better deal.”

I hit the wall in protest. “Dammit, Sorcha!
For once why can’t you swallow your pride?”

She tore her eyes away from Alston and
smirked at me. “If you know me as well as you say you do then you
should be used to it by now.”

“Sorcha!” Oren demanded. “Don’t do
this!”

Sorcha’s face softened with a hint of a
smile. She didn’t say anything, but mouthed the words ‘trust me’ to
him. Oren threw his hands up in the air and punched the wall again.
“You both are going to drive me crazy! What the hell is she going
to do?”

Shaking my head, I replied, “I don’t know,
but I’m dying to find out. She’s always been one of surprises.”

Sorcha picked up her spear and advanced on
Alston. “Let’s get this done,” she spat at him.

“With pleasure, baby.” Alston licked his
lips and advanced, looking like a wolf searching for its prey.
Hearing him speak to her in that voice made my blood boil and the
dragon inside me tense. The thought of him touching her made me
want to kill him. How I was going to be able to watch the fight, I
didn’t know. Alston deserved a slow and painful death.

Sorcha looked fierce and focused as she
circled Alston. Her concentration was perfect when we would train
together, and I knew in that moment that nothing could break her.
Clenching my fists, I knew the attack was about to start, and I
dreaded it. Alston struck out first and dove for Sorcha’s legs,
determined to get her to the ground. If he pinned her with his
weight it’d be all over for her. His size was his only advantage
whereas Sorcha was agile and light on her feet, and deadly with her
spear.

Sorcha landed some good blows to his face,
but Alston kept going strong. The prize was right in front of him,
and he wasn’t going to stop until he had her. He was relentless,
and I was helpless having to watch. All Sorcha needed to do was
stab him with her spear and it would end him; however, things took
a turn for the worse when Alston threw Sorcha to the ground and
grabbed her spear. Sorcha landed hard on her knees and turned
around in time to watch Alston snap her spear in half, and throw
the pieces to the ground as if it were trash. His evil laugh
penetrated the air, knowing he hit her with a low blow.

She flinched when she heard the audible
crack of her spear splitting in two, and immediately afterwards she
let out the loudest war cry I’d ever heard. Her spear was sacred to
her, and Alston just destroyed it. Breathing hard, I knew she was
livid when all I saw on her face was vengeance. “This isn’t good,”
Oren claimed. “She’s pissed and we both know how impulsive she can
get when she’s like that.”

“Yes, I know,” I agreed. “I’ve seen her make
mistakes when I was training with her in our dreams. She lets her
emotions get the best of her sometimes, especially when she’s
really angry.”

Sorcha’s rage consumed her, and that rage
blinded her. Alston got the upper hand, and took her to the ground,
straddling her waist. Her legs were pinned beneath his body while
Alston’s arms held hers to the side. Alston winked at me, and I
scowled at him before he looked down at Sorcha. “Do you give in?”
he asked her.

When she didn’t answer he slammed her head
into the ground. She winced and screamed in pain. With her jaw
clenched, she lifted her chin defiantly. He repeated, “Do you give
in?”

Expecting victory, a smile splayed on his
face, but disappeared when Sorcha calmly said, “No.”

Alston seethed with fury and slammed his
forearm into her neck, cutting off her air. My fists were bloody
from the incessant pounding on the invisible wall, but I kept
hitting in hopes it would come down. Eventually, the wall began to
waver and thin where I hit it with my bloodied hands. The places
where my blood touched, it thinned. My eyes grew wide in delight
and I smiled.

“Why the hell are you smiling?” Oren
demanded. “There’s nothing to smile about right now!”

Unsheathing my sword, I sliced the tip over
my palm. The blood gushed out and I placed that bloody hand to the
wall. Slowly, my hand started moving forward through the invisible
barrier inch by inch. I could feel it giving away until there was
nothing but air.

“How is this possible?” Oren whispered so
Alston couldn’t hear him.

“I’m not sure.”

Sorcha was still refusing to give in, and
soon I’d be in there rescuing her. When the wall fully opened,
Sarette made her appearance and barreled past me, heading straight
for Alston. His eyes grew wide and he faltered when he saw Sarette
approaching him.

“How could you do this?” Sarette cried. “How
could you betray your people?”

Alston kept the pressure on Sorcha’s neck,
keeping her in place, but I could hear her wheezing for air. “I had
to get what I want,” he answered, looking wistfully down at Sorcha.
“But now it’s all over. I can’t let him have her.” Slowly, he
leaned over and kissed Sorcha on the lips. “I’m so sorry, baby, but
we’ll meet each other again in the Hereafter.”

Everything after that went into slow motion.
With my sword drawn, I lunged the second I saw him pull out the
iron dagger from his belt and aim it toward Sorcha’s heart. Before
the knife hit its mark, Sorcha unlocked one of her arms from
Alston’s grasp and knocked him onto his back. It took a few seconds
to understand what happened, but then I saw the jagged stick
protruding out of Alston’s chest. Sorcha had stabbed him with her
broken spear.

Sarette rushed to Alston’s side, crying and
wailing while I went to Sorcha’s. I scooped her up in my arms and
crushed her to me. “Are you okay?” I asked, holding her tight.

Sorcha rubbed her neck and grimaced. “Yeah,
I’m fine. My neck hurts, but at least I can breathe again.” I set
her down so she could join her grieving friend while Alston choked
out his dying words. Her face showed no remorse as he lay there
dying on the ground. “All I wanted was to be with you,” he
stuttered weakly. “I loved you, Sorcha.”

Sorcha regretfully shook her head and knelt
down on the ground beside him. “No, you didn’t. If you truly loved
me you wouldn’t have done what you did. Good-bye, Alston.” She
backed away quickly when he tried to reach for her, and came to
stand between me and Oren. Sorcha turned her back and slowly walked
away.

When she was far enough away from Alston and
Sarette, Sorcha flung herself into Oren’s arms. “You had me
worried,
ai dulin
,” he whispered gruffly to her.

She sighed. “I told you to trust me, didn’t
I?”

He released her and lifted an eyebrow.
“Sometimes that’s hard to do with you.”

They both laughed lightly. Sorcha came to my
side and took my hand, holding it tight. “I knew what you were
doing, by the way,” she admitted. “Because I did the same
thing.”

“About what?” I asked, confused.

She looked up at me and grinned. “About the
promise to hand me over if you lost the fight.”

“Yeah, about that,” Oren interrupted,
glaring at me. “I was going to kill you myself if you let Alston
have her.”

Sorcha patted her guardian on the arm. “You
had nothing to worry about, hence me telling you to trust me. The
thing is, our promises don’t hold power in the mortal realm. I
could’ve promised him I’d stay with him forever and wouldn’t have
had to live by it. It was going to be my way of escape without
putting anyone’s lives in danger.”

“I didn’t know that promises didn’t work
here,” Oren said sounding surprised. “Who told you that?”

Sorcha narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure who
told me, but I knew it was true somehow.”

“I was the one who told you,” I revealed
confidently. “One time in our dreams we were discussing secrets
that not many fae know, and that’s when I told you that promises
don’t work in the mortal realm. I’d say that information came in
handy today.” I brought mine and Sorcha’s clasped hand to my lips
and kissed her knuckles while she watched me intently. “There was
no way I’d ever promise to let someone else have you.”

“Deep down, I knew that, but it still made
me mad to hear it,” Sorcha added. “When do you think my memories
will come back, or if I’ll
ever
get them back?”

She looked back and forth between me and
Oren. Her guardian shrugged, not knowing what to say, however I had
an idea. “I think I know how,” I revealed to her. “When we go back
to the Land of the Fae there’s somewhere I want to take you.”

Her bright green eyes searched mine
excitedly. “Where?” she asked.

“You’ll see.”

By the time everything was said and done,
Sarette finally joined us, holding the tip of Sorcha’s spear in her
hand, and handed it to Sorcha. “This was on the ground after Alston
turned to ash. I thought you might want it back.”

Sorcha flinched when she took it, not upset
over killing Alston, but upset for causing her friend pain. She
folded Sarette into her arms and held her close while her friend
cried for her loss. “I’m so sorry, Sarette. I didn’t want it to end
the way it did, but there was no other choice.”

“I know,” Sarette whispered.

Reluctantly, Sorcha pulled away and glanced
behind her to the pile of ash on the ground, the pile of ash that
used to be her lover, friend, and traitor. When she spotted me
staring at her, she gave me a small smile. “I’m ready to go home.
I’m ready to remember.”

No one said a word as Oren made the portal
to lead us back home. If my idea worked, Sorcha would have her
memories back, and be at her home where she belonged … with me.