What a Difference a Year Makes (Revised)

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

DPOV

One minute I was watching Paul shouting at Tasha, the next I hear him scream and see my wife start to fall.

"Roza!" I cried and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. She was unconscious and my hands searched her body for any sign of injury but found nothing. I looked up to see if the room could give me a clue and noticed that Roza wasn't the only one affected; Lissa too was unconscious and it looks like Abe had been the closest to her because he held her.

I looked over at Tasha who was being restrained but fighting tooth and nail against the guardians holding her. She looked like a rabid wild animal. I then turned to see Paul, who was in Vika's arms, clutching at his hand whilst trying not to cry. I was confused, what had happened? His hand looked like he had burned it. Had Tasha used her fire magic on him? My fear for Roza was quickly becoming anger at Tasha. There was obviously a connection between Paul, Roza and Lissa but what? I didn't know.

Checking Roza again I saw she was breathing normally, just like she would if she was sleeping. I needed to find out what happened before I could help her, so I just held onto her and scanned the room again.

My eyes moved back to Paul but something at his feet caught my attention; a necklace. My thoughts instantly swung back to another necklace, one that held a charm. Could this also be charmed? I looked at the necklace then looked at Roza then to Lissa. I was about to look back at Paul when I noticed the same necklace around Lissa's neck.

"Abe, the necklace around her neck, be careful but can you remove it?" I shouted over to him. He looked confused but nodded. He touched it but instantly pulled his hands back. The look of confusion turned to disgust and anger. He used one of his scarves to remove the necklace from around Lissa's neck.

"How did you know?" he asked turning to me.

"Tasha was wearing the same one and it burned Paul when he accidentally grabbed it" I said pointing to the other necklace at Paul's feet.

Alberta listening to all of this put on her gloves and picked it up. She brought it over as Abe, who handed Lissa to Pavel, came with the other.

"What are they?" Eddie asked.

"That is what I would like to know" and I looked up to see that it was Queen Tatiana that had spoken. I also notice that the room was quiet except for the odd shout from Tasha.

Before anyone could answer I felt movement in my arms and looked down. Roza's eyes flickered open and I let out a rush of air. "Milaya?"

"Comrade" she said and my heart soared at the sound. "What happened?" then she gasped "Lissa!" and tried to sit up.

"Steady Milaya" as I placed a hand on her back as she started to fall again.

"No I need to see Lissa. The bond its back but it's strange" she gabbled out. "It's like she's two people." I wanted to ask her what she meant but was interrupted.

"Will someone please explain what is going on?" said the Queen.

Everyone looked at Abe and me "you start and I will follow" he said.

I took a deep breath, hugged Roza to me and spoke. "I don't know exactly what happened but firstly here is what I know then I'll say what I think happened." The Queen nodded for me to continue.

"Paul screamed and then both Roza and Princess Vasilisa collapsed. Roza and the Princess share or have shared a bond since Roza was shadow-kissed by the princess in the car accident, so something that made Paul scream also caused something in the bond that made Roza and Lissa pass out." I looked around to see if everyone was still following me. Seeing that they were I continued. "After catching Roza I looked to see if anything could tell me what happened. I saw Paul clutching a burn on his hand and a necklace at his feet. He must have pulled it from Tasha during the struggle." I was slipping out of formality but I didn't care. "I knew Roza wasn't wearing any jewellery other than her wedding rings so I looked to Lissa. She was wearing the same necklace. I asked Abe to remove it."