But the Unseelie King does not look at him. Clenching his jaw, he drags his leg forward and takes a step towards the Icehearts. Draven starts to lurch forward.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Jessina warns, her knife pressing harder against my throat.
I wince as it splits the skin and a few drops of warm blood trickle down my neck. Fury and terror flood Draven’s features at the sight of it, and he immediately stops moving again.
Orion takes another step forward.
Draven snaps his gaze back to him. “Orion, don’t.”
“Please,” I add, since I know that Draven will never beg. “Please, Orion. Don’t do this.”
“I have to,” the Unseelie King presses out in a stoic voice. And he is still not making eye contact with us. “I told you back in my castle that I was only with you as long as you could help me achieve my goal. You are no longer in a position to do that.”
“Orion—” I begin.
“I told you that I could walk away at any time. This is me walking away.”
On the ground, Isera stares at him with eyes I can’t read. Bane has finally taken his boot off the side of her head, but she still can’t move due to the iron pressing into her skin.
“I’m telling you that you can’t trust them!” Draven yells.
“And I’m telling you that you cannot protect my court anymore,” Orion simply replies.
He still sways with exhaustion every time he takes a step forward, but he is making slow but steady progress across the ground.
My heart is beating so hard that it feels like my ribs are going to crack. I flick my gaze desperately from side to side, trying to come up with some kind of plan. Something that will save us. ButDraven can’t attack because Jessina has a knife to my throat. And Isera and I can’t attack because we’re wearing iron collars. Grey and Hana still haven’t even recovered enough strength to sit up, let alone use magic.
A panicked whine threatens to spill from my lips when I don’t see anything that will help us.
Bane remains standing close to Isera while Orion staggers the final distance to me and Jessina. Drawing in desperate breaths, I try to meet his eyes, but he still refuses to look at me. Holding his head high, he at last comes to a halt in front of Jessina. Her hand tightens even more around my arm, but she keeps me kneeling there beside her. And the knife remains across my throat. Another few drops of blood trickle down my skin.
I once more search Orion’s face, trying to force him to look at me.
“Please, don’t do this,” I whisper.
He just draws in a bracing breath.
And then gets down on one knee in front of Jessina Iceheart and lowers his gaze to the ground in surrender.
CHAPTER NINE
Jessina snickers. “Good choice.”
“Orion,” Draven growls from where he is standing on the ash-covered ground, just outside the melted iron. “Is this how easily you betray your allies?”
“My allies?” Orion scoffs, his gaze still on the ground where he kneels before Jessina’s feet. “You mean the allies that were deceiving me for weeks? The allies that blackmailed me into a bargain that risked my court and then trapped me in that deal even though it was all based on a lie?”
Nausea rolls through me, because Goddess damn it, he’s right. We have been deceiving Orion and we have been forcing him to risk his court against his will. And if there is one thing I have come to realize about Orion Nightbane, it’s that he takes the title of Unseelie King very seriously. He genuinely cares about his court, and he does everything in his power to protect it and to keep it strong and prosperous.
Across the ground, Draven opens his mouth to reply, but he must be thinking the same, because no words make it out.
“So yes,” Orion continues. “I would betray you in a heartbeat if it means saving my court, and thereis?—”
A knife shoots towards Jessina’s heart.
She gasps, but there is no time for her to react.
Ice cracks as the knife slams into a small shield of it right in front of Jessina’s chest.
