An Hour of Need Read Online Free PDF Page B

through the air again.
    Oh, gods!
    “Sendira!” I roared against the wind. I refused to call her Mother. She was no mother to me, no matter how much her scent drew me in. And she had lost all right to call me her son. She was no different than Brucella—cold, heartless, and merely out to put chains on me.
    But Victoria had already freed me. She had freed my spirit and freed my heart. Nobody could put chains on me again, no matter how hard they tried. I will not stand for it!
    “I promise that we will talk, Bastien,” Sendira replied, a hint of apology in her tone. “I promise. I just need to take you somewhere first.”
    “Tell me what is going on, now!” I bellowed so hard it felt I might have damaged my vocal cords. I expected her to just ignore me again, but to my relief, my sheer volume—and likely also the desperation rocking my voice—seemed to get through to her. She stopped zooming so fast and gradually slowed, until we caught sight of another random pile of rocks pushing up from the swelling ocean. Here she touched down with me.
    My hands were shaking with anger as my feet hit solid ground. I backed away from her and glared at her.
    In spite of my rage, I could not help but feel a bit taken aback on noticing how guilty she looked. This woman was a paradox to me. How could she be so vicious and hardened one moment as to attack the very woman her son had professed to love, and the next be gazing down at me with affection, the way only a mother could? It was unnerving. Endlessly unnerving.
    “All right,” she said, “I will tell you before we meet Brucella.”
    “Brucella!” I growled. “So you admit that she sent you!”
    She released a sigh and nodded. “Bastien, hear me out. Please, hear your mother out.”
    It grated at me to hear her call herself my mother. I wanted to correct her, spit out that she was no such thing, but her softened demeanor made me hold back.
    She took my hand and held it in hers. “I was forced to make a deal with that wolf,” she explained. “That deal is the only reason that I am free. She never would have released me from our prison if I had not agreed to her demands.”
    My head spun. “Wait. Release you from your prison ? What? That’s not the story you told me.”
    She swallowed. “I know. It pains me to say that… I lied to you.” She proceeded to explain to me the full truth—she had not “just happened” to come across Brucella while roaming around the ogres’ kingdom with my father; rather, they had been trapped for decades in a dungeon sealed off by the spell of a witch—the real truth of my family’s history left me gasping for words.
    “So… the deal,” I managed. “What exactly was the deal?”
    “Brucella demanded that we hunt down your human lover—who I must make clear, Bastien, is absolutely no match for you”—her softened expression turned hard again, but she continued before I could protest—“and then instruct you to marry Brucella’s daughter, Rona.”
    I clenched my fists so hard, my nails dug into my palms. I’d just known that Brucella was behind this. I’d known it all along.
    “I was supposed to take down the human just now,” my mother went on, “but since she had that mystical being with her, I failed and had no choice but to take you away. It will be a waste of time trying to track that human down, and Brucella is unreasonable for suggesting it. So long as the human is protected by such a being, it is an impossible endeavor.”
    “And what were you planning to do with me now exactly?” I seethed.
    “Take you to Brucella and inform her that I could not accomplish the first part of the deal—”
    “But that you will attempt to force me to marry Rona?” I interjected.
    She nodded, and then a scowl crossed her face. “That bitch’s daughter is no match for you either,” she growled. “The only reason I acquiesced is because Brucella has assured me that she has a circle of witches who will immediately thrust me