“Orion,” I push while alarm crackles through me. If Bane dies, we will never get a second shot at this. We will never find the Soul of Trees.
“…have messed with our minds a little bit,” Bane mumbles, blood bubbles popping at his lips. “Six thousand years is a long time. Too long. I can feel it… weighing on my?—”
“Found it!” Orion snaps.
Isera rams her ice blade straight into Bane’s throat.
He chokes, his eyes almost bulging out of his head.
I pull my magic back at the same time as Orion’s eye stops glowing. Then we just stand there, watching Isera twist her ice blade inside Bane’s throat with a snarl on her face until his body is spasming violently.
Then at last, the final light fades in his eyes.
And Emperor Bane Iceheart dies.
Isolated, vulnerable, and surrounded by enemies.
Isera gasps out a breath, as if she hasn’t been breathing for months, and scrambles off his body while a storm of emotions pulses like shockwaves on her face.
A world-shattering, animalistic scream from a dragon’s throat shatters through the air.
I whip my head towards the invisible wards around the Unseelie Court.
Jessina, still in her dragon form, shrieks with such raw agony that my skin prickles and the blood freezes in my veins.
She throws her head from side to side, that screech echoing across the plains.
Then she goes completely berserk.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ice flames crash against the wards of the Unseelie Court like a furious avalanche as Jessina tries to force her way inside. Behind her, the rest of the silver dragons hesitate and whip their heads back and forth between their clan leader and the dragons that are still attacking them.
Diana doesn’t hesitate. She and her people surge forward and press the advantage, convincing the blue dragons and the orange dragons to do the same. Dragon fire and ice flames clash in the sky, making steam explode through the air while dark clouds and storm winds howl around them.
My gaze immediately darts to the massive black dragon close to Jessina.
Draven.
He doesn’t hesitate either.
Shooting forward, he aims straight for Jessina’s neck while she is busy trying to break the wards around the Unseelie Court.
My heart lurches as he opens his jaws, trying to rip her throat out.
Jessina, blinded by rage and grief, doesn’t see him coming until he’s already right on top of her. Whipping her head towardshim, she breathes a burst of ice fire straight at his face. A panicked scream rips from my throat. But Draven meets it with a blast of real dragon fire. The two forces crash into each other with a crackling and hissing sound that washes over the landscape while Jessina flaps her wings hard and shoots upwards, trying to get on top of Draven. He swerves in the air and speeds after her.
On her other side, Galen and Lyra breathe torrents of dragon fire at her while Alistair throws even more fire magic at her from another direction. She screams in fury, her head still snapping towards where Bane lies dead on the ground inside the wards.
The moment she’s distracted, Draven strikes.
A massive bolt of white lightning splits the air.
Jessina tries to yank her body out of the way, but her split-second of lost focus is all Draven needs.
The lightning bolt cracks into her front leg. Her muscles spasm, and even her wings stop beating for a second as the lightning courses through her body, making her drop downwards. But most importantly, it makes her open her claws.
Hana and Severin Godblessed plummet straight down as she drops them.
