Jessina’s hand around my upper arm tightens until I wince from the pain, and she keeps me on my knees. But because my naked skin is no longer touching the massive iron underneath us,strength slowly starts returning to me. My magic is still blocked by the iron collar, however.
“Get your fucking hands off her!” Draven bellows as he strides out of the smoke like a shadow of death.
Lightning flashes in his eyes and crackles down along his arms, and his massive black wings are spread wide in challenge. Dark storm clouds trail him like a billowing cloak.
“Take one more step and I’ll slit her throat,” Jessina snarls back at him.
Fury to rival the demons in hell flashes across his face. But when his gaze settles on the knife at my throat, he immediately stops walking. He keeps his wings wide and the lightning crackling down his arms, though.
“You killed Kander!” Jessina screams at him, sounding more unhinged than I have ever heard. Then she flicks a glance at her mate. “Bane, he killed Kander!”
“I know,” Bane replies, sounding a lot more composed.
He doesn’t have a knife to Isera’s throat the way Jessina does to me. Instead, he looks to have shoved her back down on the iron ground after he collared her. Lying on her side, she has the naked skin of her right cheek pressed to the ground. Her chest rises and falls with short, panicked breaths, and her gaze darts between me, Draven, and where Orion and the others disappeared to.
The smoke from Draven’s transformation finally blows clear, revealing Orion, Grey, and Hana lying on the stone ground to my left and halfway between me and where Draven is standing. All three of them are gasping in deep breaths, but since they’re no longer touching the iron, their strength should start building back up again.
“This wasn’t part of the plan!” Jessina yells, still sounding hysterical. “Kander was just supposed to distract Draven while we forced the fae to the melted iron building.”
And that’s when it finally clicks.
Of course. There are melted heaps of stone and metal all over this city. Most of them are shaped like tall mounds, as if the building has simply collapsed in on itself. But some of that iron must have run out onto the street as well. And this is the Icehearts’ old homeland. Probably their old capital city. Of course they would know exactly where a huge pool of iron has melted. They were deliberately pushing us back towards it and then made us dive down so that we would have to catch ourselves on the ground while they used the winds from their wings to blow away the ash that was hiding the metal.
“Calm down, my love,” Bane says, his voice steady and reassuring. “We have already gotten everything we need from Kander anyway. The location of the Gold Clan.” His black eyes glint, and a vicious smile spreads across his lips as he shifts his gaze to Orion. “The real location. Which is not here, in case you still haven’t figured that out.”
Cold dread sinks into my stomach like a block of ice.
“You really must get some better spies, Nightbane,” he continues, his eyes still locked on Orion. “You’re making this way too easy for us.”
Hana and Grey are still trying to drag air back into their lungs, but Orion, who is no doubt the strongest magic user in the entire Unseelie Court, manages to push himself up to his knees. His long dark blue hair hangs around his beautiful face like curtains, and exhaustion clings to every inch of his body.
But he still raises his head and demands, “What?”
“Oh come now, Nightbane, this shouldn’t be a surprise,” Emperor Bane replies, a taunting smirk on his lips. “We’ve known that you have a spy in Frostfell for some time now. We might not know who, but we know you have one. So all we had to do was to let slip to the right people that the Gold Clan was hiding here in a pocket reality, and then you rushed here and brought exactly the people we needed.” He nods towards Grey and Hana before shifting his gaze back to Orion and shaking hishead as if scolding a child. “Your spy really needs to get better at verifying information.”
Nausea rolls through my stomach. It was a set-up. Goddess damn it, this was all an elaborate trap. Getting us to race here, pushing us to the melted iron, collaring us. Everything was part of their plan. Again.
A sudden hopelessness crashes over me. It’s so strong that I almost sob. How are we supposed to win this war when our enemies are two six-thousand-year-old strategic geniuses who always think five steps ahead?
“Now, we will get the Gold Clan,” Bane continues. “One way or another. Draven can’t move, because if he does, my mate will slit Selena’s throat. And you will never be able to recover enough magical energy to attack us before we can kill you and the little ice lady here.” He places his boot down on the side of Isera’s head, shoving her cheek down harder against the iron.
Lightning flashes in Orion’s eyes, but he says nothing. Just remains there on his knees, drawing in steadying breaths in order to get back enough strength to stand.
“And once we have the Gold Clan,” Jessina picks up, a cruel smile on her face. “Your court is the first that we will burn to the ground, Nightbane.”
Dread flits across Orion’s gorgeous face for a second before he manages to hide it.
“But we’re not entirely unreasonable,” Bane continues. “Instead of simply killing you and taking your people to do our bidding, we will offer you a choice. Surrender to us and order your people to obey our commands, and we will spare the Unseelie Court. After all, we bear you no ill will. You are not the ones who enslaved us.”
“Don’t listen to them,” Draven grinds out. Black clouds still billow behind him. “They will never honor that deal.”
“Says the traitor,” Bane replies, a cold smile full of threats on his face as he locks those black eyes of his on Draven.
Orion staggers to his feet.
“No,” I breathe.
Draven snaps his gaze to him. “Orion.”
