The Hidden Princess: Secrets Revealed (Book Two)

Chapter Four: "It's one of Erik's favorite forms of torture"

A week passed since my conversations with Nikolai, Louis, and Nate and I still hadn't gotten any further figuring out who to talk to. I hadn't seen Nikolai since we talked, so I didn't have to face telling him that the thoughts still haunted me with no escape. Louis on the other hand, continued to remind me that I needed to share. However, I wasn't ready and still didn't know who to go to. I lay in bed staring up at the wooden rafters. "Samantha, if you aren't at breakfast in the next ten minutes I'm sending Alakay to get you," Erik called banging on my door. This past week I had shifted from being out of bed before everyone to not wanting to get out of bed and Erik was getting tired of it. I sighed as I rolled over not wanting to have Alakay's energy in my room before I had fully woken up.

I quickly got ready before walking into the cafeteria and after grabbing my breakfast found my brothers. "Aww man. You should have waited in your room for another minute. Erik was about to send me for you," Alakay said, grinning at me. I glared at him saying nothing as I ate my breakfast. "And so we are into sulking teenage girl mode... is it your time of month?" he asked, laughing as he dogged a roll I had aimed at his face.

"No, still not sleeping," I mumbled, ignoring any further conversation.

After breakfast we had the pleasure of running the obstacle course. "Are you trying to kill us?" I asked as Erik leaned up against a fence at the start of the course.

"No, just pushing you all," he said with a grin. "Luke here is going to go with you guys. If he so much as hears one word out of any of your mouths it's back to the start," Erik said before walking off. This had become Erik's new favorite way of making us do the obstacle course. We had to run it in silence. We were told it built teamwork. At least he hadn't blindfolded any of us this time. Those were the worst. We'd done that at the start of the week and I had nearly ended up with broken bones from not being able to see or talk.

"Sometimes I think he just wants to kill us off," I said, shaking my head as we prepared to run. It took us three attempts to make it through. The last time we nearly killed Alakay as we were approaching the final obstacle when he let a few words slip, sending us back to the beginning. As we jogged across the finish line I stopped, tilting my head. "When did we start giving tours of the compound?" I asked, nodding to where a group of about twenty youth and a handful of adults stood.

"Have you not been paying attention to the morning assemblies?" Louis asked, as we made our way over to a group of Dragons watching the growing crowd.

I shook my head. "Not really. I've had other things running through my mind and figured that you all will inform me if I need to actually know something," I said, getting slapped on the back of the head. Sending a glare at Benedict I rubbed the spot he just hit.

"We aren't responsible to make sure you listen. However, this once I'll fill you in. Today starts the apprentice competition. Twenty youth have been chosen to spend a week at the compound and at the end three will remain," he said.

My eyes grew wide. "Oh right! I knew that. Just didn't know that was today," I said. A grin crossed my face as I spotted James and Kole standing with their parents. Most of the youth either had one or both of their parents standing with them. "Who's the boy without an adult?" I asked, nodding to where one youth stood with no one beside him. My brothers all turned to where I was indicating.

"That's Rowen. He showed up in Jarrow four years ago with his mother and sister. They were seeking a second chance. No one really knows what from," Shepherd said.

"Where did they come from? He doesn't look Aurojian," I said.

The Dragons around me nodded. "They're from Nivertara," Troy said, mentioning the snow-covered land to the East of us; that many call The Wailing Flatlands.