Alistair rolls his eyes and gives Draven a sidelong glance while muttering under his breath, “Show-off.”
A muscle flickers in Draven’s jaw as he clenches it to stop a laugh that would most certainly ruin his current air of ruthless power.
It thankfully distracts the others enough that they don’t realize that it takes me three tries before I manage to force myself to let my magic fade out instead of using it on someone else. I draw in a deep breath, trying to compose myself.
“Well, go on then,” Alistair prompts, his voice soft enough that only we can hear. “Tell them what’s going on and what we need them to do.”
“I’m the Shadow of Death,” Draven growls back in a low voice. “Everyone here is terrified of me. You’re one of them. You tell them.”
“I’m a bully,” he protests. “Everyone here hates me.”
“I have emotion magic,” I add. “No one here trusts me.”
“I’m the Unseelie King,” Orion says. “No one here has even seen me before.”
Clothes rustle as we all turn to Isera.
She gives us all an incredulous look. Then she lets out something between a sigh and a groan. “Mabona’s tits.”
Turning back to the worried crowd before us, she draws in a deep breath.
“Listen up!” she bellows in a voice that pulses with authority and echoes across the field.
It shocks me enough that I even jerk back a little. I don’t think I have ever heard Isera raise her voice in this way before. But Goddess damn it, it’s like she was born to command armies. I stare at her as she begins explaining what has happened outside the thorn forest this past year and the war that is going on and what we need them to do.
Every word she speaks is filled with such unflinching confidence and authority that I feel myself straightening as if before a commander. There is no hesitation in her words. No question at all that people should just shut up and do what she tells them. I can’t help but be impressed.
Eyes widen as Isera exposes the truth of the Atonement Trials and the dragon steel and who the Icehearts really are and the war that is now being waged. The gathered fae cast uncertain glances at the army of dragon shifters before them when she tells them about the union bond and how it works. And large parts of the crowd outright gasp when she tells them that she has killed Emperor Bane.
“Now, it’s time to finish this war!” Isera bellows across the stunned crowd. “Once and for all. All of you who possess amagical skill, step forward so that we can start pairing you with dragon shifters to form union bonds.”
No one moves.
I sweep my gaze over the crowd, looking for familiar faces. Like Fenriel, the cheerful guy I got to know during the Atonement Trials, and his magical hawk Talon. Or even Trevor, the guy with stone magic who would have likely won the Atonement Trials instead of me if Isera hadn’t almost cracked his skull with a block of ice. But people are still streaming out through Golden Gate, making their way towards us, so they might not even be here yet.
Shit. We need someone who will step forward and take the lead. But they all just stare back at Isera with terrified eyes.
“Selena,” she says under her breath.
“Yeah,” I simply reply, since I know exactly what she is asking.
Summoning my magic, I sweep my gaze over the crowd until I find someone who I know people look up to. A jolt shoots through me when I spot the master of the Fishing Guild. My old boss. He has water magic, and he is over five hundred years old, so people have a lot of respect for him.
It will have to do.
I visualize a large burgundy flame of courage before me.
Then I shove it right into his chest.
Pleasure flows through me the moment it makes contact. I draw in a discreet breath of relief as those incessant cravings inside me at last fall silent now that the comforting warmth is flowing through me again. My eyes glow as I continue increasing the courage in his chest. I watch the hesitation fade from his features as determination instead takes its place.
Old insecurities try to rise up inside me.
I spent more than a century of my life trying to make this man like me so that I could finally move up in the guild instead of staying at the lowest position of fish cutter all my life. It never worked. Because of my magic type, he never trusted me enoughto promote me to a different position. I spent years trying to prove to him that I would never use my magic against anyone in the guild. That I was not that kind of person.
And now, here I am, doing exactly that.
“I will fight!” my old guild master calls, his voice ringing out across the crowd.
