“Sorry, I just don’t like not being able to do something,” I tell him, taking two steps forward like he suggested and then letting the boots glide me along.
“Again,” Elias says when I slow to a stop. I repeat the action, until I’m doing it without thinking, and we are skating around the ice together.
“Sometimes, you can’t do everything alone. You need to accept help, in whatever forms it comes in,” he tells me, and I know he is right. It’s like going back to Dragca, I will need help. There is no way I will be able to win the throne back on my own. No, I have to start asking for help when I need it. Elias is right, but I’m not going to tell him that. His ego is big enough already.
“Even from the sexy biker man I’m on a date with?” I ask, and he pulls me to his chest, making me almost lose my footing as he holds me close to him.
“Even me,” he whispers, and then kisses me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Isola
Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Korbin asks me, as him and Dagan pull their coats on. I lean against the wall, shaking my head.
“Nope, you need to do a food shop. I’m not going with you after last time,” I shoot a pointed look at Dagan, who laughs.
“It wasn’t that bad,” he grumbles, walking out the door.
“It was! Watch out for the big pile of food this time!” I shout after him. Korbin chuckles and follows him out.
“Do you want anything special?” Elias asks as he comes out the kitchen, and gets his coat.
“Chocolate, lots of chocolate.”
“I should have known that answer,” he grins, “what are you going to do today then?”
“I’m going to sit and read this book that came out today I’ve been waiting forever for!” I say excitedly and he laughs, kissing my cheek before walking out and shutting the door. I grab my kindle from my room, and run down the stairs, sitting on the sofa as I open a new book. I love the feeling when you start reading the first line of a new book and you know you are going to be hooked from just that one line. You also know you won’t be putting it down for a long time. I settle down on the sofa just as my phone starts ringing.
“You have to be kidding me,” I groan. I put the kindle down and run into the kitchen, finding my mobile on the side. I just miss the call, but there’s five messages from Hallie.
Hey! I decided to go to the party. Hot guy is going!
Okay, the party is boring.
I skim through the next couple of messages about who is hooking up with who at the party and about some girl that was sick on a guy to the last message.
Help me! I can’t drive, and some guys won’t leave me alone.
Shit. I grab my coat, looking down at my leggings and green tunic top that stops at my knees. I don’t look too bad and she needs me, what I’m wearing isn’t going to matter. I quickly call a local taxi firm and then wait outside, deciding not to call the guys. I’m stronger than they are right now anyway, and I can freeze any one that touches Hallie. The taxi turns up ten minutes later as I keep calling Hallie’s phone, and it goes straight to voicemail every time. I give the taxi driver Michael’s address and sit back, still wondering if I should tell the guys. I quickly text Elias.
I’m going to Michael’s party to pick Hallie up. Won’t be long. X
I rest my head back, worrying more and more about Hallie. She takes self-defence like I do, and I remember her telling me her father taught her how to stop an attacker in seconds. She will be okay, she likely just needs a lift, and her phone is flat. Michael’s house finally comes into view, a massive house in the middle of the woods on the other side of town. It must be five floors, with white panels and massive windows. There’s loud music blasting from the house that I can hear from inside the car, even as we head up the driveway. There are students all over the lawn in front of the house, some making out, others smoking, and then I spot one student throwing up. Gross. I quickly pay the driver and get out, walking up the footpath and stepping over a passed out guy in the middle of it.
“Issy!” I hear Michael shout my name from in front of me before I even get in the door. Michael jumps up from his seat in the living room I’ve walked into, like he was waiting for me or something. I look away, searching the room and seeing half of it is a smoky dancefloor with loud music making it hard to hear anything, and sweaty teenagers dancing with each other all over it. The other half is full of sofas pushed together, teenagers all over them, doing things I quickly look away from when I don’t see Hallie. Shit, where is she?
“I’m so glad you came!” Michael says, grabbing me and holding me tight to his sweaty and alcohol stinking body.
“Have you seen Hallie?” I shout near his ear, smelling the beer and smoke on his clothes. He stinks so bad, and not in the good way.
“Upstairs, I will show you where she is. She is okay, don’t worry, just a little drunk,” he shouts back, taking my hand and pulling me through the people to another room with a large staircase. I don’t trust when he says she is fine, but I don’t have any choice but to let him lead me to where he said she is. He drags me up two floors, as we avoid drunk people on the stairs, and the sounds coming from the rooms.
“In this one, she was pretty drunk,” Michael says, pointing at a door in the middle of three. I pull my hand away, walking over and opening it up. I walk in, seeing an empty bed and nothing else in the room. I turn as something sharp slips into my neck, and an arm wraps around my waist. Ice spreads down my hands as I try to fight the person holding me.
“Don’t fight little dragon, you’re mine now,” Michael whispers, licking my ear as everything goes black.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Korbin
Those look gross and seriously bad for you man,” I tell Dagan as he picks up his eighth packet of some tube of sweet powder things and chucks them into the trolley. I think I’m the only one that likes healthy food. Not pure sugar.
“I like sweet things,” he winks at me, and I just groan, giving up on him. The whole trolley is full of crap, I know why Isola didn’t want to come shopping with us now. I bet it took a year to put everything away.
“Come on, two trolleys full is enough,” I say, staring as Dagan gets two more random sweet packets, and we walk to the next aisle where Elias is getting the last of the things on the list.
“Got everything?” I ask, seeing him searching his pockets.
“Yeah, I think,” he says, “I just left my phone at home.” He slips the note into his pocket and spins his trolley towards the other aisle. I’m half way down when I fall to my knees, screaming out from the pain and panic I feel. No, not that I feel, what Isola does. I can feel her, and she is in trouble. I go to open my eyes when a roar escapes my lips, and everything goes black as I hit the floor.
I blink my eyes open, seeing another version of myself on the floor. I’m much younger, about ten, covered in mud as a man shouts at me. I don’t know the man, yet I feel like I do. I can’t look at this child version of me anymore, something makes me want to run away from it. I look away, at the ice behind me, so much ice.
“Hello?” I ask, as a green little doll creatures floats through the ice.
“She needs you. Save her, fire dragon. Save ice, save the light,” the little doll says and suddenly a flash of memories hit me. Everything comes back. Isola. The throne. Dagan and Elias. My dragon.
“Save her,” Bee pleads with me as I start falling, and I can’t fight it.
Kor, wake the fuck up,” Elias’ voice comes through the haze, and I feel a hand slapping the side of my face. “For fucks sake.”
I jump up when water is thrown over my face, and I wipe it away, looking around at the shopping aisles, to Elias standing over me with a bottle of water.