I’d vowed to stay close to Izzy, but now that felt like a chain around my ankle. If I stayed with her in the prison, I’d be useless to actually help her get out of this situation.
Safir and Zora ran off, probably to tell Olinara and Lhorine what had happened, and hopefully to activate their little spy network. I didn’t know what good that would do, but at least they weredoingsomething.
Vyns slipped up beside me.
“Just got a text from Rook. He’s going to distract Hana so she’s not focusing on our minds, give us a second to plan.”
I watched as the incubus confidently strode forward to chat up the sylph, a rigid tension in his shoulders. He didn’t like any of this, but he was doing his part and I’d not let his efforts go to waste.
“What can we do?” I hissed.
“I know you’ll want to stay with Izzy, but in this instance, I think I should. Your destruction will be more useful than my light in whatever rescue plan the others come up with. Also, Izzy may need some bolstering in spirit, which I can do through our link. I’ll make sure she’s okay and keep her spirits up. You… do whatever you need to do to get Myel out of this mess!”
Vyns was thinking clearly. He was right about all of that.
And oddly, I wouldn’t mind leaving Izzy in his hands this one time. He’d protect her with his life. And focusing on getting Myel out would provide some focus for this blinding rage coursing through me.
“Okay,” I grunted.
“Really? That was easy.”
“I really need to destroy something or someone and I can’t do that if I stay with Izzy. You watch her, keep her safe. I’ll ruin someone’s life for the pain they’ve put her through.”
Izzy shifted in my arms.
Could she hear me? She seemed only semi-coherent, mostly out of it.
“Good… Now freeing Izzy and Myel is only part of the problem. They’ll probably put Izzy in the strongest binding collar they have. We’ll need some way to get her out of that, which may mean… finding some new allies.”
I growled.
Vyns understood. “I know you don’t like the idea, but I’m willing to bet Lhorine isn’t strong enough to break a collar of that magnitude on her own. And I don’t think we’ll find many elves to help us.”
“Dwarves?” I suggested. “What about Svokol?”
“As far as I know he has no ability with binding. Most dwarves aren’t very good with bindings anymore.”
Yeah, I’d known that. I just didn’t like the other option. In fact, for me there was no other option, but Vyns brought it up anyway.
He lowered his voice. “We may need to see if we can find a friendly… titan.”
I let out another low growl.
“I know, I know,” Vyns whispered. “But listen… the ones on campus, as much as they’re working for Saldrea, I get the distinct impression they don’t like it, that she has something on them, forcing them to do her bidding. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we can trust them, but we may have a common enemy in Saldrea. Perhaps we can convince them to help us with this so that together, we can take down the false princess.”
I hated this idea. What I hated most… was that it made sense.
It had been ingrained in me since I was a hatchling that titans were evil, the enemy, to be destroyed. I’d fought them in the last war between our kinds roughly five hundred years ago. I’d killed their kind and they’d killed many dragons I’d called friends. I could never trust a titan…
And yet…
I ground my teeth, knowing Vyns was right.
“I’ll talk with the others and see what they think,” I said. It was the closest I’d get to conceding Vyns’ point. “But if we come up with a better option, I’m taking it.”
“Of course,” Vyns whispered. Though from his tone I got the feeling he didn’t think there would be any other options.
The angel changed the topic, for which I was grateful. “You know where they’re keeping Myel, right? Where Izzy was headed, it could only be?—”
