Black smoke explodes in the air.
And then my stomach lurches as I plummet straight down towards the ground.
The scream gets stuck in my lungs as I fall, those loose strands of hair streaming above me.
Then a pair of strong arms appear underneath me.
Through the smoke, a shadow of death becomes visible right beside me. His black wings beat the air, lowering me more slowly to the ground. And his golden eyes glint.
“Worried?” Draven asks, a slight smile grazing his lips.
I flash him a smile back. “Never.”
Storm winds whoosh around us as Draven blows the rest of the smoke away while he, now in his half-shift form, picks up speed again and shoots down towards the ground.
Emperor Bane looks to be frozen in shock as he plummets to the ground in his fully human form.
Outside above the plains, Jessina roars.
That seems to snap Bane out of his stupor, because he gives his head a quick shake.
But before he can try to shift, ice shoots up at him from the ground.
“It worked!” I gasp out, relief crashing over me, as Draven lands hard on the ground.
“It was supposed to be Jessina,” Draven replies with a glance towards the empress, who is now speeding towards us as well.
“I know.” My gaze darts to Isera, who is attacking Bane with blazing revenge burning in her eyes. And this time, I won’t ask her to stop. “But we’ll have to go with it now.”
“There will be hell to pay.”
I nod. Then I jerk my chin towards where Jessina is speeding through the air. “We’ve got this. Go get Hana and Severin.”
Grabbing the back of my neck, he yanks me in for a furious kiss. Then he flares his wings and flies back towards where Orion is standing. But Jessina gets there first.
Her massive dragon form glitters like liquid starlight in the fire that streams through the air all around her where silver dragons are fighting orange, purple, and black dragons in a furious battle. And rage burns in her cold gray eyes as she keeps them fixed firmly on where Isera is hammering Bane with ice while the emperor tries to both defend himself and land at the same time.
Draven shoots towards her.
Jessina reaches Orion.
And slams right into the now invisible wards around the Unseelie Court.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Empress Jessina hits the still raised wards around the Unseelie Court with a boom that echoes over the beating winds and roars of battle behind her. Fire erupts across her chest as Orion speaks the phrase that will set someone aflame when they try to pass the wards, while the force of the collision throws her backwards in the air. She quickly breathes ice flames down at her body, putting out the fire.
On the ground inside the wards, Bane slams into the ground, his fall slowed only marginally by his ice magic.
“Jessina!” he screams.
But Isera is still hammering him with attacks from where she was waiting on the ground.
Draven reaches the edge of the wards. Below him, Orion speaks the correct words that will allow Draven to pass through the wards without issue. With a salute and a smirk of approval at the Unseelie King, Draven flies back out onto the grasslands and then shifts into a dragon again.
The moment he’s through the wards safely, Orion whirls around and starts sprinting back to us instead.
Jessina roars outside the wards, desperately trying to breakthrough them and get to her mate. But even though they are now invisible, they are still firmly in place, just as they always have been.
