That draws a slightly smug smile from Draven while the other clan leaders exchange a look.
“Anyway, Bane and Jessina realized that they could never start a proper war without the rest of the dragon clans,” she continues. “So they did something no one would ever expect. They went to the Green Clan under the pretense of asking for help, and then once they were inside their mountain, they stole their archives and threatened to destroy them. Then they forced the Green Clan to visit all the other clans and change the memories of all dragon shifters so that they thought that we had enslaved them all. I’m assuming that that’s the time when the knowledge of how to form these partnerships was wiped from your minds as well.”
“Azaroth’s flame,” Ejnare curses, his eyes wide.
For a while now, since I learned about how the Iceheartsconquered the Green Clan, I’ve been working under the assumption that that’s how it went down. But to hear it confirmed hurts more than I thought it would. We were allies. We were friends who shared deep bonds. And then all of that was practically destroyed overnight.
“There’s one thing I just don’t get,” Alistair begins. His eyes are slightly narrowed and his brow is furrowed as he watches Lavendera. “If that group of fae outcasts had already enslaved Bane and Jessina with dragon steel, how were they able to get free from that? I thought dragon shifters couldn’t touch dragon steel. So how did they get it off?”
“Wetook it off them, of course,” Lavendera replies, as if that should have been obvious.
Silence falls over the plains. Another wind sweeps past, making the grass ripple like water and rustling the few bushes that dot the landscape. A few lazy clouds drift over the otherwise clear blue sky.
“What?” Alistair at last presses out, voicing what we’re all no doubt thinking.
“I mean, not me specifically,” Lavendera says. Then she winces slightly. “I was so wrapped up in my own life that I didn’t even know that it was happening. But some other fae from the Seelie Court had come across that group of outcasts and realized what they were doing. So they fought the outcasts and removed the dragon steel from Bane and Jessina and all the other dragon shifters that they had enslaved.”
“Our ancestors freed Bane and Jessina?”
“Yes.”
“And they still decided to massacre almost our entire race?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.”
Standing there on the grass, I say nothing. If Orion hadn’t shown me Bane’s memories, I would never have understood. If I hadn’t been so fucked up and full of rage and revenge myself, Iwouldn’t have understood. But unfortunately, I do. Because I am terrifyingly similar to Jessina in some ways. So while it doesn’t justify their actions, and while it doesn’t make me hate them any less, I still understand the overwhelming, burning need for revenge that drove them to launch that war and kill our ancestors. Because I was ready to slaughter the entire Silver Clan in retribution for what Jessina did to my parents.
The memory of her slitting their throats suddenly flashes unbidden before my eyes. Pain hits me straight in the chest, making it feel like I can’t breathe. I desperately try to force those emotions back again while battling the suddenly overpowering urge to use my magic.
Goddess damn it, I can’t slip up now. I can’t let everyone else see how messed up I am in the head right now. I’ve worked so hard to become someone that people rely on. If they learn how badly I’m struggling with all of this, they really will start to think of me as a liability again. And I am not a liability. I am not the weak link. So I don’t want them to see my weakness like this.
“Well, that was depressing to learn,” Ejnare says, and rubs his forehead. “Now, I almost wish I hadn’t asked.”
Draven turns to Lavendera. “Let’s just get started with this union bond. What do we do?”
“Take out your knife,” Lavendera says. “The dragon shifter starts the ritual by slicing a cut across the fae’s palm.”
Draven frowns deeply at her, but she just keeps looking back at him in silence. With a sigh, he slides out a knife from his thigh holster. I turn towards him and take a step closer before holding out my right hand. Draven’s eyes search my face, and there is a distinctly uncomfortable expression on his face.
“I don’t like the thought of hurting you,” he says in a low voice.
“I know.” A teasing smile spreads across my lips. “Too bad I’m not the one who’s supposed to do this part, because if youremember, I have no problem swinging knives at your pretty face.”
A very untimely burst of laughter escapes his mouth.
Lavendera gives him a questioning look.
Clearing his throat, he shakes his head at me. But my little joke dispelled his tense energy, and he takes my wrist in his free hand before moving the blade closer to my palm. He holds my gaze as he draws a small cut across it. I make sure not to show any signs of pain.
“Now, you need to speak the ancient words,” Lavendera says. “Repeat after me.”
Then she speaks a series of words in a language I don’t know. But even though I’ve never heard them before, I somehow immediately understand what the words mean. The moment I speak them, it’s as if they vibrate through my very soul.
Strength.
Unity.
