Queen of Summer's Ice (Book 2)

Chapter 40

     I felt the pull in my chest literally drag me from my sleep, I sat up so quickly that my eyes clouded with whiteness. My rush even made Ray startle awake.

     "What-"

    I stare around my quiet room. There was no noise around the castle that could have woken me up like this, not when the fire was calming down and the wood's crack was little more than a whisper. No, this wasn't from a nightmare, or the castle.

     "Someone just came in from Autumn," I told Ray. It took him two heart beats before he registered what I just said, and another before he made a motion to uncover himself out of him. Yet I grabbed his hand and stopped him. "No," I said, "It's just...one. They're alone."

     "This could be a trap," he told me.

     I reached into my land, and felt where this person was. They were so far away that it was difficult to tell if they were a women or a man, let alone their age. But one thing was for sure, they were running.

     "I'll let them run three miles in and then I'll cage them in and get who ever this intruder is."

     This time when I made the motion to get out of bed, Ray stopped me.

     "I'm coming with you."

     The look in his warm brown eyes were giving no room for argument, and seeing as we just finished having one, I was not about to tell him no again.

     "Obviously," I said. "Hurry up and get changed, I'm going to go get Alagan."

     I was so concentrated on listening to the land as it told me the intruders whereabouts were that I didn't see it coming when Ray threw the pillow at the back of my head. When I whirled around in frustration and confusion he couldn't help the smile that formed on his lips in this intense moment. "How about you get dressed too."

     My cheeks blushed as I looked down at my outfit...which wasn't much of an outfit. 

    "Oops," I muttered. That would have been...horrifying doesn't even match it. So, together Ray and I dressed. There was no need for him to dress in his full on armer, but he did put on some protection while I fitted myself into a winters white dress that flowed all the way past my toes. 

     I left brown curls down and around my face and neither Ray or I bothered to get our crowns as we rushed to Alagan's room. Once we were outside his door it swung open before I had the chance to barge in.

     "You're supposed to knock first," Alagan said as a way of greeting. He wore no top, just his pants, and even then the string was undone.

     "Can you feel it?" I asked him.

     "Just now I did," he said.

     "It didn't wake you up?"

     Alagan shook his head. "The land tells you before it tells me, remember?"

     Right. Winter was mine, despite him being the eldest. He rejected winters right as soon as he could. Winter was mine, and Spring was going to be his, I was going to make sure of it.

     "Then lets go."

     Within minutes he was changed and the three of us were on horses. Before we left we managed to wake Yana and tell her to watch over the children, and to let the knights know to guard the castle.

     We had to ride a little slower on the ice horses because it's full speed would possibly kill Ray, but still we rode faster than any horse. This was not the first time Ray had ridden on one, but at this speed it was. He made it seem as if he'd ridden on an ice horse for years though, he was that much of a natural.