Page 106 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
“Are you hallucinating?”
“I don’t think so,” Anna said. “Because they’ve all got something in common.”
“Which is?”
“I’m young in them.” She looked up at last, her eyes violet and troubled, showing her true weariness from her ordeal, whichshe’d hidden masterfully in the throne room. “I think they’re memories.Mymemories.”
Milly gasped, and we all shared an excited moment.
“It’s just bits and pieces right now. Nothing I can really make sense of. A laugh here, a room in a house. A voice or two. I’m trying not to get too excited. It might amount to nothing. I’ve come to peace with the fact I can’t remember my earlier life, and I don’t want to go back down that road in case nothing more happens. But who knows.”
Milly and I nodded, in full agreement, but hopeful nonetheless.
“So, what did I miss while I was gone?” Anna asked, looking back and forth between us.
“I’m going to get this stupid collar off finally, after the challenge,” Milly said, smiling.
“That’s great!” Anna exclaimed. “I’m happy for you.”
“Me too,” I said, happy that Milly had taken my urging to heart.
“Oh, also, Ella got claimed by Dirk.”
I groaned.
Anna’s face opened wide. “Youdid? Amazing! I’ve been trying to get Caz to tell me where he is. Has he been with you this whole time then? I’m so happy for you guys!”
“You had to tell her some time,” Milly said when I gave her a look. “If we waited on you, it would be weeks from now.”
Anna glanced between Milly and me. “Yeah, I definitely missed something. What’s going on?”
“Just talk to us,” Milly urged from the other side of Anna. “Please. You’re our friend, El.”
Sighing, I realized that Milly was right. I didn’t like it, but she was. These were my friends. If I couldn’t confide in them, who could I talk to?
So I told them what happened between us and Dirk’s threat to kill Mirko. I told them about claiming one another, and I told them, in the end, about the head on the gates, what it meant, and how Dirk had known. I told them who it was and what he’d done to me.
They buried me under hugs like friends would. They wiped at my cheeks and their own as I struggled to get the words out at points.
“I’m so sorry,” Anna whispered. “I know that doesn’t change anything, but, El. All these years, and you’ve been dealing with it on your own.”
“No I haven’t,” I said, leaning on her shoulder as she rubbed my back. “I’ve had you two. Yes, it’s good to talk about the past, but you two helped me live in the present, and even look to the future. You never pushed, never judged, nothing. You were just friends, and I can’t think of anyone better than that.”
“So what are you going to do?” Anna wanted to know.
“Beats me.” I sighed, feeling defeated by it all. “Dirk was a Hunter, and he apparently isn’t ready to give that up yet. He’s out there now, living his best life, ready to kill his uncle. All I want is for him to come back to me. To talk. I’m not sure what else to think. He just doesn’t care.”
“You’re wrong.”
All three of us looked up as Caz entered from a side room, dressed in all-white leather armor and wearing a crown of ice so pure it was black.
“Caz,” Anna started, but he waved her off gently.
“No. This, she needs to hear. All of you do.”
He looked at the curtains and the assembling crowd beyond. He should be focusing on the challenge. Mirko was no slouch in the power department. I worried about the outcome, and I knew it had to be weighing on Anna too. If he was going to take time to talk to me, that meant it was important.
“Dirk cares about you more than anything, Ella. He hates himself, knowing that if he’d just killed one more Hunter, one more time, that you would have had a much easier life. That you would not have suffered. Of course, he doesn’t realize that if he had, you might not have met these two, and then you wouldn’t be here, he would never have met you, etc., etc.”
