Free Fighting For Her Dragon by Julia Mills Page B

appeared carrying three of the biggest books she’d ever seen. Without a word, he approached Siobhan and the two went directly to the Healer’s workspace at the back of the room.
    “Emma, can you come here?” Zachary asked, making her feel like she’d been called to the principal’s office for playing hooky.
    “Yes, sir,” she said, hurrying to the Elder.
    She’d barely stopped when he asked, “Can you feel him? Has he spoken to you?”
    Nodding while she found her voice, she answered barely above a whisper, “I can feel him. Syd’s right. He’s stuck in the In-between.”
    “Looks like we better bring him back if we want to keep the status quo.” He started to turn away and then came back to face her. “How are you? I heard you finding out you had a mate was not easy for you.”
    “I’m fine, sir. It wasn’t, but I’m okay. I just want him back.”
    Placing his hand on her shoulder, Zachary drew Emma into a hug. She was immediately swamped with feelings of warmth and comfort. When the Elder set her back, he looked into her eyes, smiled, and asked, “Do you know how truly special you are?”
    Unsure what to say, she shook her head and waited, hoping Zachary would explain. Instead, he turned on his heel and headed to Siobhan and Malachi. Not sure what to do, Emma just looked around the room. Carrick was speaking with Rayne, Rian, Aaron, and Aidan, and from the looks on the twins’ faces, it was not a happy conversation.
    Continuing her surveillance, she found Kyra and Royce talking to Sam and Lance. It was obvious from the way the adults took turns looking at Sydney that the child was the topic of conversation. She wondered what they were talking about, and in the next heartbeat, could hear their conversation.
    All right I’ll ask questions later. Right now I need to know what they’re talking about.
    “There’s absolutely nothing to worry about. I only need Sydney to sit with me and say the spell at the same time I do so I can scry for Andrew’s location,” Kyra explained.
    “It’s not you I’m worried about. Andrew already used her against us once; I’ll have to kill him if he does it again.” Lance paused and then added, “Well, kill him again, or still, or what the hell ever, you get what I’m saying. There’s no way in this world or the next I’m letting that little piece of crap get his hands on her.” 
    Emma was infuriated. She knew what they all thought of her mate, but to hear it with her own ears was tough and more than a little insulting. Here they all were faced with some crazy ass prophecy detailing the end of the world as they knew it and they were still bitching about Andrew.
    Deciding she’d heard enough, Emma turned to go to Siobhan. Three steps towards her destination and she realized she could still hear everything everyone in the room was saying. It was completely disconcerting, not to mention that listening to all the bitching and complaining was giving her one hell of a migraine. Unable to deal with the chaos a second longer, she turned towards the door and exited as quickly as she could.
    Winding through the corridors, she found an empty cavern lit by one white and one blue pillar candle, surrounded by a circle of golden votive candles on a small, stone table. Pushed by the need for a few moments of blessed silence, Emma crossed the threshold and moved across the room to stand before the lights.
    Staring into the flame of the white candle, she concentrated all of her energy on shutting out everything but the beating of her own heart. Thump…thump…thump… She’d always heard it was more of a whish sound, but in this case, it was most definitely a thump.
    With the noise of everyone else’s conversations silenced, Emma was finally able to focus, to think about all that had happened and what she feared would happen if they weren’t able to stop the shit storm that was heading their way. For some reason, she wasn’t afraid as much as irritated that she’d spent