With a small smile, Draven gives both of them a nod. Then he turns to Diana. “And the Brown Clan?”
“I had them,” Diana begins. Setting down her knife and fork, she arches an eyebrow and gives Draven a pointed look. “Then they got word that you killed Kander von Graf.”
Draven grimaces, but his voice is unapologetic as he says. “I had to. His memory magic is too dangerous.”
“I agree. But the Brown Clan was not happy. They liked Kander. And they said that if you can killhimjust like that, you might wake up one day and just decide to kill them too.”
An annoyed groan slips from Draven’s lips, and he rubs a hand over his face. “So they won’t join?”
“No.”
“So stubborn. Always so fucking stubborn. They’re worse than their damned mountains.”
“But,” Diana continues, “they said that they won’t back the Icehearts either. They have no love for the Iceheart Dynasty, and they want to regain complete freedom and full control over their own clan.”
“But they don’t trustmeeither.”
“No. But they won’t fight against us in this war. No matter what the Icehearts threaten them with.” She shrugs, making her wavy brown hair ripple over her purple dragon scale armor. “At least their stubbornness goes both ways.”
“Yeah, there is that, I suppose.”
“Speaking of partnerships,” I pick up, sliding my gaze from Diana to Lavendera, who has just been eating quietly at the edge of the table. “You know what the partnership between fae and dragon shifters is, right?”
For a few more seconds, she just continues eating while her pink and purple eyes remain out of focus. Then she blinks hard and forces her presence back to the front of the mind she shareswith the Mother Dryad. Turning her head, she meets my gaze and simply replies, “Yes.”
Hope surges inside me. “So what is it?”
“It’s a bond formed between one fae and one dragon shifter.”
“Like a mate bond?”
“No. A mate bond is permanent and predestined. Very intimate. This kind of bond, we called it aunion bond, can be formed between any fae and dragon shifter at any time. Either person can also end the bond at any time. And then reform it again, if they want to. The dragon shifter needs to be in dragon form, though.”
Anticipation crackles through me. “So you can teach us how to do it?”
“I can.” She slides her gaze over all of us. “But I won’t. Not until you get me the Soul of Trees.”
Isera narrows her eyes. “This partnership is supposed to make both us and the dragon shifters stronger. We might need it in order to get you the Soul of Trees.”
“You might. But I’m still not going to tell you.”
Several people at the table groan. Me included. It feels like we’re talking to a moody teenager. Not the six-thousand-year-old daughter of the last Seelie Queen.
“Lavendera,” I begin. “We’re going to need all the advantages we can get.”
“You don’t understand,” she snaps back. Anger and desperation flash across her beautiful face for a second. “This is my only leverage. Without it, I can’t be certain that you will prioritize finding the Soul of Trees.”
“We’ve already promised that we will help you.”
“Well, forgive me if I don’t trust you.” She shoots me a sharp look, but there is deep hurt in her eyes too. “I’ve already been betrayed once by people who were supposed to be my friends.”
I’m about to snap back thatshehas already betrayedmeonce too, but then I remember what she told us in that forest outsideFrostfell. How her friends traded her to the Icehearts in exchange for their own lives.
Slowly closing my mouth again, I study Lavendera. Really look at her. Yes, she might be acting like a moody teenager. But in some ways, I suppose she still is. She was nineteen years old when the Icehearts captured her and forced an immortal dryad into her head. That must have affected her development a lot.
“Why did you never use the dragon steel on the Icehearts?” Orion suddenly asks into the now uncomfortable silence. He doesn’t look uncomfortable, though. He looks the way he always does. Like he’s scheming something. “You’ve been handling the dragon steel, putting it inside other dragon shifters. Why didn’t you just touch the Icehearts with it and force them to tell you where the Soul of Trees is that way?”
“Do you really think they ever let me anywhere near them while I was holding it?” She scoffs. “And besides, if I had tried to attack and force it on them, I would only have one shot. If I failed, that would ensure that they never, ever gave me the Soul of Trees.” She shoots him a pointed look. “Why can’t you just find where they hid it in their memories?”
