Child of the Loch (Child of the Loch Series) by Elizabeth Delana Rosa Read Free Book Online Page A

though he’d been a dream.
    “Didn’t you hear us calling? Why didn’t you answer? I was worried for you. Ogres are dirty, ruthless and cruel. Did he hurt you any?”
    He sniffed the air about me and then resumed his interrogation. The more he questioned and lied about Ogre kind, the angrier he got. I felt the heat of his rotten breath as he stepped closer to me menacingly. When I did not have time to answer quickly enough, he grabbed my arm hard I felt a bruise forming and dissipating.
    The contact took me deeper and further into his mind than I had been with the Prince. James had attacked the Prince from behind and beaten him. I saw the joy that he took in hitting him again and again. He loved how the blood oozed from the wound and was even tempted to lick at it a little.
    Even more gut wrenching, James was a rival for the throne. He was from a clan of distant relatives, the McCuens , who had feuded with the McDonnells for many generations. They were the leaders who would enslave the people of the Loch and use the Lochoan armies to crush everyone else, perhaps even the “Outlander” lands I called home for most of my life.
    James was full of cruelty, a credit to his clan. I felt his hatred for me and the McDonnell name. It was as though the pain he was inflicting on me had opened the dark recesses and corners of his mind that he hid so well with the beautiful lies he had rehearsed until they were his second nature.
    He made the deception more believable by using his gift to skew what people saw. As the wall dropped, I saw his true-self. He was tall and fat with light pink skin. His round face was covered in dark warts and his almond eyes were black like tar. James’s bulbous, misshapen nose looked like another wart and his mouth was slimy like a toads. He was truly half something but Ogre wasn’t it.
    Shocked and awed by what I was seeing, I could not respond. The vice grip on my arm continued to tighten as he stared angrily into my eyes. His eyes widened and darkened further with malice when he knew that I had seen behind his glamour.
    James was poised to strike me with the hilt of his sword high about his head, but the Prince dropped from a tree landing on his feet with a thud and pulled me gently from James’s grasp. His threatening stance, deep rumbling growl and bared teeth were an unmistakable challenge to James, who turned and ran the other direction before vanishing all together. There was no trail that I could see.
    However, the Prince gulped deeply and started after James elated by the thought of a chase. Surprising myself, I stopped him with a hand on his wrist. He dragged me a few feet before he registered my hand on his arm.
    I dusted off and I called for my father, who came running through the underbrush. His sword was drawn and I could see the protective warrior in my father. He raised the sword to end the Prince but was stopped when I drew my own sword. The two swords clinked loudly and sent birds flying further up into the trees.
    “Why did you stop me from slaying the Ogre and where is James?” He asked when he saw no sign of him.
    The Prince wouldn’t stay with us. He slipped his wrist from my grasp and kissed my palm. He nodded to us both and said, “Good bye Grand Queen and noble Master, this is where we part.”
    He backed into the forest with a pointy-toothed smile and gave chase to James. My father and I were left alone. I told him about James’s betrayal and my strange connection to the Prince of Ogres. My father peered at me thoughtfully but said nothing. He was even careful not to think.
    I wondered why but didn’t question him. I knew we were of the same thought on everything. We were sure that we had not seen the last of the Prince of Ogres or the last of James. Independently, I thought to myself that I could not trust my connections, because for a moment I was James’s.
     
     
     
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    We made plodded back to the orange meadow silently and continued forward. The trail was