“Your Majesty,” Grey says from the other side. “Do you?—”
“Yes,” Orion interrupts before snapping his gaze back to Nysara. “The news?”
“The Icehearts are about to leave any moment now for their ruined homeland,” Nysara presses out between deep breaths. “Because according to the Green Clan’s archives, the Gold Clan is hiding there in a pocket reality.”
I jerk back in shock. A pocket reality? The Gold Clan is in a pocket reality?
But it makes sense. Why else would no one have been able to find them during all these millennia?
“We need to get there first,” Draven declares, his voice pulsing with authority.
“Agreed,” Orion says. He slides his gaze to Nysara. “Well done. You might be able to come home soon after all.”
Hope bursts like sparkles in her eyes. But Orion is already moving. Whirling around, he strides straight towards the portal. The rest of us scramble to catch up with him.
“Hana!” he yells as he stalks back into his throne room. “Get Hana here right now!”
The guards who were stationed in the throne room leap toattention and rush out to obey his orders while Draven, Isera, and I walk back into the throne room as well. Orion, however, doesn’t stop. He continues straight towards a door at the back of the room, forcing all four of us to hurry after him.
“Orion,” Draven says. “Who’s Hana?”
“She’s the girl who opened the pocket reality that you were in during that last competition in the Great Games,” he says, not looking back.
Yanking open the door he was heading for, he stalks into what appears to be a small meeting room. Bookshelves filled with leather tomes and old scrolls line the walls, and a round table takes up most of the floor space in the middle. There are no windows in here, so when Orion enters, he turns on the faelights that have been set into steel light holders around the room. Soft white light bathes the space as we all pile into the room as well.
“If the Gold Clan is in a pocket reality, she should be able to open it,” he finishes.
Paper rustles as he yanks out a map and then spreads it out across the round table. I sweep my gaze over it while we all gather around it. My heart leaps when I find what looks to be a map of our entire continent.
“That’s good,” Draven replies to Orion’s statement. I can practically see the plans and schemes churning in his golden eyes as he meet’s the Unseelie King’s gaze. “If we can get to the Gold Clan first, we will have a real chance of killing Bane and Jessina.”
Isera’s interest sharpens like a knife. “How?”
“They will be alone and isolated out there, and they will need to shift into their human forms to get into the pocket reality.”
I blink at him in confusion. “How do you know that?”
“They don’t have magic to open the pocket reality by force, so they will need to convince the Gold Clan to let them in.” A small smile plays over Draven’s lips as he holds my gaze. “And to do that, they need to be able to actually talk.”
A faint blush spreads across my cheeks. Oh. Right. Of course.Goddess above, that was a stupid question. I really need to get my head back on straight.
“So how does that make it easier to kill them?” Isera demands, pushing the conversation back on track. “They still have their powers.”
“Yes,” Draven agrees. “And they’re lethal with their ice magic. But it’s still just ice magic.”
“As opposed to what?”
“Their dragon fire. Their ice flames cause that ice sickness that…” He trails off, and his eyes soften as he casts a glance at me. “That Selena almost died from.”
“And their ice magic doesn’t?” Isera demands, plans now swirling in her own eyes too.
“No. Our dragon fire is ancient. It’s a core part of our beings. Our bodies. Our souls. It’s sacred and imbued with all the ancient power of dragons. But our clan magic is just… magic. Their ice magic is exactly the same as yours.”
Realization dawns on Isera’s face. “So if we can ambush them in their human forms while they’re in an isolated place where they don’t have an army of silver dragons to back them up…”
“We might be able to kill them,” Draven finishes for her.
Orion lets out a huff that is half amusement, half approval while sliding his sly gaze to Draven. “Huh. That was actually clever, beast.”
