Read The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) for Free Online Page A

awaiting me. I slid in next to my friend and immediately realised my mistake. Theo was directly opposite me, when he looked up he was looking straight at my face.
    He glanced out the side window, the muscle in his jaw still flexing.
    I turned sideways and took in my friend. She'd lost some weight and there was a heaviness to her now that bubbly Sonya never had. Her eyes looked older, she wasn't even chewing on the strands of her hair. She sat still, smile in place, but there was a darkness just behind the façade.
    "What happened?" I asked, knowing the question was more pertinent than I'd at first thought.
    Sonya let a long breath of air out. Then reached for my hand and laced her fingers with mine.
    "They came when I was shutting up the shop," she started, her eyes turning haunted and distant. "Two months after you'd left," she added. "If it wasn't for Aktor." And then she stopped, unable to get any more words out, tears filling her big blue eyes, her bottom lip trembling.
    I glanced over at Isadora, who had been watching silently from her side of the car.
    "The Rigas ?" I demanded, aware that Theo had stilled.
    Isadora nodded. "His guards, in any case."
    I let a controlled breath of air out, turning back to my friend.
    "How bad?" I whispered.
    "Bad enough," came her reply.
    "You know what they are? What I am?" She nodded and from the corner of my eye I saw Theo cock his head, his eyes boring into the side of my face. "Can you see the Elements?"
    "No. But Aktor explained. And then I met Isadora." She leaned forward and stage whispered, "You were right, she can be a real bitch."
    Theo let out a snort and then looked chagrined. Isadora glared at him and shifted a little away in the seat. It would have been perfect, but Theo reached for her hand, entwining it in his, and lifted it to his lips in apology.
    "She's not the only one," I murmured, getting a raised eyebrow from him.
    "So, Aktor?" I asked in a louder voice, making sure the butler could hear from the front seat.
    "I traded my soul and your freedom for your friend, Miss Eden," came his careful and steady reply. "Did I make a mistake?"
    I shook my head, which I hoped he saw in the rear view mirror.
    "I thought you betrayed us," I commented, feeling so blastedly tired all of a sudden.
    "I know," the old man replied. "And in a way I did." Pain etched into every word.
    "I don't remember any of this," Theo remarked from his statue like position across the car.
    "We'll work on getting your memory back," Isadora soothed.
    It should have been me. I should have been reassuring my Thisavros . I should have been receiving the soft smile and squeeze of his hand in mine. It should have been me.
    Isadora's eyes came up to mine and held my gaze. Neither of us said anything, the car a cesspit of unwanted emotions, moving silently through the darkened Auckland streets.
    A private jet waited for us on the tarmac, fuelled and ready to go as soon as we boarded the plane. I walked down to the back of the cabin and sat myself down in a corner seat, fastening my belt and closing my eyes as soon as the engines roared to life, vibrating through the fuselage. Sonya had tried to sit with me, but she'd soon realised I just needed some space. In the end I had the rear part of the cabin to myself as the rest of them got reacquainted, attempting to tell Theo what had been happening in the political realms of Pyrkagia .
    Like me, I think he was more concerned in the personal ones, his eyes darting down towards where I sat more than once during the flight. I spent the duration half sleeping, half aching, half watching the man who seemed so far out of my reach.
    We landed in a crosswind, not unusual for Wellington. The rest of the passengers making suitable murmurs of concern as we crabbed our way through the sky towards the floodlit runway. For some reason it felt like a welcome, as though Wellington itself had reached out and tickled the underbelly of the airplane making it jump and jerk and sway.
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