Ice fire streams over Grey from behind, encasing his body all the way to his neck, and rushes towards the still open portal.
Alistair slams a torrent of fire straight into the ice flames right as they reach the portal. The dryads scream, pressing themselves down harder against the ground to stay out of harm’s way. Orion, a shard still sticking out of his shoulder, shoves himself to his knees and twists around.
Fire pours into the ice flames, melting them before they canstream in through the portal. Alistair grits his teeth, trying to force his fire all the way to Grey, who is still stuck in the ice three steps away from the safety of the portal.
Dread flashes across Orion’s face as he whirls around to see it.
“Grey!” he screams.
Jessina continues breathing ice flames that keep undoing all the progress that Alistair is making with his fire. While still building up the ice that Alistair melts, she speeds towards the open portal. Alistair pours more flames through it, desperately melting the ice at a furious pace. But not fast enough.
Still encased fully in ice, Grey meets Orion’s gaze through the portal. Tears line his turquoise and yellow eyes, but there is a soft smile on his lips as he holds Orion’s gaze.
“It’s been a pleasure, my king,” he says.
“Grey,” Orion chokes out.
A massive silver dragon slams down right onto the thick ice where Grey is trapped.
The ice, and Grey’s body that is encased in it, shatters like a smashed mirror underneath the massive weight of Jessina’s body.
The portal disappears. But it doesn’t collapse into the ground like it usually does. It vanishes. From one moment to the next, it simply ceases to exist.
Gone.
Just like the soul of the person who used to wield its magic.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Deafening silence falls over the garden. It’s so loud that I feel like my head is ringing. For a while, no one says anything. No one even moves. We all just stand there and stare in shock at the now empty air. On the ground, the dryads are lying completely still, stunned and confused and afraid to move even though Alistair’s fire has stopped.
“Make way,” Rin Tanaka suddenly says, her steady voice shattering the dead silence.
Dryads leap up from the ground. The ones on the edges have finally recovered their wits enough to move farther out so that the ones in the middle can at last move out of the way as well. Roses and jasmine bushes rustle as the dryads squeeze past to reach the more open stretches of grass outside the elegant garden. It gives both Rin and Isera room to finally reach Orion.
Isera drops down on her knees in front of Orion, who is still sitting on the ground. For a moment, it looks like she is about to reach out a hand, but then she just flexes her fingers in her lap instead. And before she can say anything, Rin comes to a halt behind Orion’s back.
“I need to remove this and reverse the effects of the ice flamesbefore it starts spreading too far through your body,” she says while motioning down at the shard of ice fire that is still sticking out of Orion’s shoulder blade.
Orion, however, doesn’t seem to have noticed either of them. He is just sitting there, staring at the space where Grey’s portal used to be.
Rin glances down at him, still waiting for an answer or acknowledgement or any kind of sign that she can start working. After all, this isn’t just a random person. This is the Unseelie King. The ruler of one of the great realms of this world. No ally would use magic on the Unseelie King without his permission.
After flexing her hand again, Isera at last reaches out and carefully touches Orion’s arm. “Orion?”
His mind seems to snap back to reality. Blinking, he gives his head a quick shake, confusion still lining his face. “What?”
“She needs to heal you before the ice fire spreads,” Isera says with a nod to Rin, who is still standing behind him.
“Oh. Right.” He clears his throat. “Yes.”
Rin grabs the ice shard with one hand and his shoulder with the other. Then, without a word of warning, she simply yanks it out. He sucks in a small breath between his teeth. After laying the ice down on the grass beside them, she moves her hands up to the wound in his shoulder. Magic shimmers above it as she begins reversing the effects of the ice flames that would otherwise spread and freeze his entire body from the inside.
Turning towards them, Alistair summons his magic as well and melts the shard of ice into a puddle on the grass.
“You saved them,” a shocked voice rasps.
We all whirl towards the Dryad Queen. She is standing there on the grass while her people huddle around her like frightened children. The Dryad Queen stares at Orion with wide eyes. Shock and terror still linger on her face, but they’re joined by two even stronger emotions now. Relief. And gratitude.
