4 CHAPTER FOUR

Adelaide moved silently through the bushes. With the faint light coming from the stars she could make out the shape of a house with rills around it. The one which MT had spoken about. It wasn't alight but she could sense a presence inside.

A strong presence which echoed a warning that disturbed Adelaide senses because despite the dirt littered around the house which made it seem more secluded and unhabitable, she felt something emitting but before she could cross the ahead trespassing line, Adelaide paused.

"Trespassing" Reen quietly murmured from her side pointing at the various thorn trees scattered on the left side of them, encircling the house which warned off travelers. Up ahead, a bird chirped noisly and a cold breeze sweeped the leaves making them whisper.

Looking around the bushes, past Reen, Adelaide whispered to him and then weighed the risks of crossing. She could ultimately put them in danger, they could both die the moment they crossed the line or she could...

"We can't go back" Reen said caughing her eyes and holding it. " I wasn't asleep when he came".

She stared at him intently wondering before nodding. Placing her hand on her lips to mum him, she squatted and closed her eyes, trying out a technique she hadn't used since she left the protégé's ward.

She needed to evolve without using her powers only sense like MT did when he didn't want to announce his presence.

Reen kept shut and turned to guard her while listening for any sign of attack. It wouldn't do her any good but he could wake her before they became vulnerable He had learned from his time with the Grace sisters.

The space around them grew calm as the trees from afar and beyond silenced, the birds beyond the trees hummed in their nest and the wind swept through her every core. She could sense danger and something, an omiscient.

Immediately she crossed the threshold, something brushed through her mind seeking and she pushed back, drifting it towards.....

"No" she heard a short gruff yell before she dropped to the ground.

Adelaide awoke startled, clutching her stomach as she tried to roll out of the bed but someone held her down.

"Hold still".

"Who are you" she murmured weakly pulling her hand away to peel off the blind fold."Where's Reen".

Blinking against the sudden light pouring from outside the small shed she was laying in, she looked around the empty place before squinting to make out the person sitting by her side.

She wasn't dead but alive, breathing but in pain and she wasn't in danger because her powers hadn't fired her up yet

''A man" She froze, her mind stilling for a second " He looked human, with dark hair and eyes, his heartbeat racing slowly.

She tried to push off from the bed, ignoring her throbbing skull but he held her down. "Where is the boy?" She demanded looking around the shed again for Reen. He wasn't there.

"He's fine Adelaide but you need to rest" the man replied in a calming tone and Adelaide eyes lifted to hold his gaze.

Immediately She remembered, her hands struck out, grabbing the man by the neck in a chokehold as fury lit her veins. Eldridge.

He gently peeled her fist from his lapels and held on to her hand "Relax Adelaide, I came to help".

" How dare you" She snapped thinking about all the times she helped him but the first time she'd wanted something he'd denied her access and thrown her out.

"You" she gritted out biting back her anger with each uttered word. " Stripped my powers and now…help, Leave"

She suddenly wheezed, trying to catch her failing breathe.

"Why now" she yelled grabbing him by his cloth when she could finally breathe. Eldridge barely murmured, rubbing her hand in his grasp soothingly as she let it out "I wasn't coming back, I had accepted my fate"

Adelaide hated that she sounded pathetic; weak but it had hurt. A lot when no one had come for her even when she thought she was dying underwater.

"It wasn't my decision to make Adelaide" He murmured solemly casting his eyes down. His words brought tears to her eyes but she blinked them away before they fell. Never again

Slowly, she let her hand fall, resigned to her fate. Nothing ever worked her way that much she'd known for ages and as she laid back down, she welcomed the pain.

Finally gathering enough strength, she stood on her feet.

"Why did you strip my powers?"

"Never Adelaide, I would never".

Moving away from him, she dragged her feet untill she got outside. His words fell on deaf ears. she wouldn't trust him, not untill she got verification.

Stepping outside the shed, she expected to see the castle but there wasn't one, She walked further out and turned to look at the shed instead she saw a house and a tree next to it. Eldridge had brought her to SECRIA.

Turning quickly "Where is Reen?" she demanded glaring at him " And I won't be asking again".

"He went to the square" He replied walking to her side and holding her upright when she almost dropped again " Don't you want to know why I brought you to SECRIA"

Relieved that Reen was fine, she turned to face Eldridge "I don't care and I won't ever try to pretend like I know why you do what you do, ever".

Adelaide barely got a read on the emotion that flitted through his eyes before he was pulling her inside, towards the bed. She didn't fight him, there wasn't anything to fight him about.

"Why where you there Adelaide" He questioned immediately she was on the bed but rather than sit next to her he paced around.

"I needed answers"

He paused as his eyes swept over her. Walking over to her side, he pulled her cloth aside and placed a hand over her stomach. Her stomach revolted over the skin contact before settling.

She watched him with wary eyes.

"You were poisoned"

"Indeed I was" She mocked him putting a hand over his wrist to pull his hand away from her stomach. "And I'm not dead".

"You will soon".