I bite my lip.
“Nu-uh, you don’t get to do that,” he smirks, backing out, those familiar green eyes daring me from afar.
I am panicking because I’ve fucked this up; I should have said something. I need to say something.
“Jestin, you misunderstood me,” I blurt, but the words die on my lips as the sudden beating of wings shatters the night’s uneasy calm. Shadows twist in the moonlight, and a black figure hurtles towards us. I don’t bolt, my gut tells me it’s our companion.
Riven lands before us with a thundering boom, the mask of a general hiding any hint of emotion. Moonlight glints in his eyes. “Dante Ogison and his elemental army are a day’s march from us.”
Dread coils in my stomach, rooting me to the cold, dew-soaked ground. Every nerve screams in revolt, and even the night itself seems to pause, waiting for what comes next.
Chapter 16
I can’t present a respectable front when my body is freezing and sweating at the same time. What a freak of nature does that?
I am forced to be civil towards a male whom I’d prefer to see hanging. But what else can I do?
“I’m here,” Jestin nudges my shoulder, and I pivot, turning a little too sharply in his direction. He doesn’t say anything else, so I study his face. He looks as cool and collected as always, but under that careful mask, he’s fuming. I know him well enough to be sure of that.
Dante knows him just as well.
“What if they attack?” Nulok asks, standing with the rest, on the field Riven has chosen for the confrontation.
I raise an eyebrow, about to ask,Why are you asking me?but he stares at me expectantly.
“He won’t,” Jestin answers in my stead. “He’s here to goad us into making a mistake, maybe to take a read on us.”
I’m not so sure. That male has already tarnished his image in my head; I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
My power stirs inside me at the thought of him, and I force myself not to let the worry show on my face. Worry that I won’t be able to contain it. Worry that I might not want to.
Nulok nods. “I don’t envy you. Compared to you, I had the unpleasant experience of meeting him only a few times over the years.”
“He won’t attack, don’t be stupid Nulok. It’s a move to evaluate how stable Sels is and who stands behind her.” Jestin chastises him.
The air thickens with the metallic tang of blood, though no blade has been drawn yet.
“Here they come,” Riven says from my left. He and Bane stand side by side, their posture disciplined and civil, yet the feral malice is impossible to miss. Bane flexes his gloved fingers slowly, as if already feeling the weight of his sword. Meanwhile, Riven offers a faint, almost courteous smile.
As for me, I lock every muscle in my body so as not to cringe while I follow his sight.
The once endless desert is now invaded by thousands of elemental casters. From a distance, they look like a four-colour flag in the middle of nowhere, but with each passing moment—each phase, I can fairly judge exactly how many Fae that flag is made of.
I look at Jestin, but I don’t see a similar worry on his face.
“I wonder who gave them permission to cross my land,” he says dryly as the sand around him responds to his agitation; more than half already turned to glass, rising and dancing, reflecting the sun like a kaleidoscope.
“Crossing borders isn’t forbidden,” Nulok states, and Jestin gives him a long stare, as if wanting to say, ‘It is completely not the point, dude.’
“Theoretically no, but after killing Rowan, we are kind of walking on thin ice,” Riven says, voice calm but unreadable.
“Everything in this Queendom right now is on thin ice,” I state, without looking away from the casters.
The storm inside me whirls. I am more than ready to annihilate that cockroach; I only need to stop myself from doing it. Easy, after all, I am the epitome of self-control.
“We are fixing it just now,” Nulok says, but before I can express my undying love for him, the army stops phasing, and one single portal opens right before us. My companions tense, but get in line. From the left, there are: Nulok, Jestin, Aidon, me, Riven and Bane.
From the blue rectangle steps out Dante, his black uniform symbolising his claim as heir to all four elemental courts. He looks exactly as I remember, messy hazelnut hair and striking chocolate eyes.
