A crack forms in the air in front of Hana. It widens andspreads towards the ground as she slowly draws her hands to the sides, as if she is parting a pair of heavy curtains.
My pulse thrums in my ears as a stone bridge becomes visible where only air used to be. It’s not a bridge that has been constructed by people. Instead, it looks as if the ground that we are standing on just stretches straight out into the water, forming a natural walkway. I stare in amazement as an island appears at the end of that bridge.
“Excellent work,” Bane says, sounding genuinely pleased.
Hana backs away from the hole in the air and returns to him and Jessina. “Thank you, sir.”
“Hana,” Orion growls. “You do not address anyone outside the Unseelie Court assir.”
She flinches but says nothing. Only cowers down even more.
Next to her, Bane lets out a smug chuckle and flashes the Unseelie King a knowing smirk. However, before Orion can retort, Jessina stalks up to where Isera, Orion, and I are standing and shoves the crude dragon steel bracelet into my hands.
“Go in there, put this on their clan leader, and then come back out with that person,” she commands while putting the piece of leather she used to touch the bracelet back inside her dress.
My fingers curl hard around the metal as I try to block out another torrent of memories that I really don’t want to be thinking about now. Because now, I need to focus. My soul vibrates with the need for my magic, both to feel that pleasure and so that I could channel it through this metal and shove it against Jessina’s naked skin and then use it to control her. But with my iron collar, it’s impossible. So instead, I stuff it into one of my belt pouches and then clench my fist to hide the way my hands are still shaking slightly.
“Why don’t you just go in yourselves?” I bait.
“So that you can trap us in there?” Bane scoffs from behind Jessina. “Nice try.”
“What’s to stopusfrom just staying in there? Safe and protected from you inside a pocket reality.”
“You could,” Jessina replies, a cold and utterly vicious smile on her lips. “You could stay in there, safe and sound, while we slaughter all of your friends and loved ones out here. Is that what you want, fae?”
Grinding my teeth, I glare back at her but say nothing.
“Thought so.” She flicks her wrist dismissively but then narrows her eyes at us again. “Let me make this perfectly clear. If you come back out here without the leader of the Gold Clan in dragon steel, I will carve out all of your remaining eyes and then leave you crawling around on all fours, blind for the rest of your miserable lives.”
Orion flinches, which just makes her vicious smile widen.
“Still holding out hope that someone will be able to heal your eye?” Jessina mocks, her cruel gaze on Orion’s face. Then she jerks her chin towards the opening in the air. “Better hurry then.”
He bares his teeth at her but then simply spins around so that he is facing the hole in the pocket reality. Isera and I turn around as well. Waves lap gently against the stone walkway that leads out to the island hidden out there in the water.
“Go get us the Gold Clan,” Bane says.
With a deep breath, we step inside the pocket reality.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Pain spears through my leg with every step. Since the iron collar is constantly draining my energy, and we’ve barely been given any food, the deep wounds in my thigh and shoulder haven’t been able to heal enough to be fully back to normal. So a jolt of pain hits me every time my boot connects with the ground. The fact that we’re running at breakneck speed isn’t exactly helping either.
My gaze drifts back to Orion, who is running at the head of our little group. He is the one who is setting this grueling pace. Stress radiates from every inch of his lean muscular body as he hurtles through the woods.
We don’t know exactly how much time has passed, but all of us have estimated that it has been at least two entire days. Which means that we don’t have long before Orion’s wounds become too old for Haldia to heal.
I watch the way he clenches his hand and whips his head from side the side while running, as he tries to guess where we should go to find the Gold Clan. Guilt flickers inside me. I was so quick to believe that he had turned on us back there. We all were. But in reality, he alone almost managed to win this entire war for us.
He knew that the only reason Draven couldn’t attack was because Jessina kept that knife to my throat. So he risked his own life and pretended to surrender so that he could get close to Jessina and kill her. If he had succeeded, Draven would have been free to take out Emperor Bane with all of us to back him up. And then, this war would be over.
But instead, Orion lost his eye.
So I don’t ask him to slow his pace. I just grit my teeth against the pain that shoots through my leg with every step and continue running.
“Logically, they should be living in the middle of the island,” Isera says from where she is sprinting along next to me.
Sensing abutcoming, I ask, “But?”
