Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Throwing the door to the dungeon stairs shut behind me, I sprint down the corridor and towards the side door. My heart slams against my ribs. I don’t know how much time has passed since we went inside. The others might have already left at this point. With or without Lavendera.
A messenger jumps out of the way as I skid around the corner. Her blue eyes widen in surprise, but before she can get a closer look at me, I take off down the hall and sprint towards the next intersection.
“Hey!” she calls after me. “Are you—”
I slam right into Jessina Iceheart.
Air explodes from my lungs as I run straight into the two people who just came charging out of the hallway on my right. Dragging in a deep breath, I leap back and snap my gaze between them.
“Watch it,” Jessina says, and then casts a sharp look at the gaping messenger. “And get to work!”
With a small shriek of panic, the messenger darts away.
For a moment, my brain is still screaming at me to attack the person in front of me. But I know that it’s not actually Jessina. It’s Isera. And more importantly, she has another person with her.
Lavendera Dawnwalker.
“Let’s go,” Isera says in Jessina’s voice.
Without waiting for a reply, she takes off down the corridor with Lavendera next to her.
I scramble to catch up and then dart along the glittering ice halls with them.
My gaze slides to Lavendera as we run. I have no idea what Isera said to her to trick her into this, but it appears to be working.
She is barely even looking at me. All she does is whatever Isera tells her.
Air that tastes of mountains and ice fills my lungs when we burst out through the side door and out onto the castle grounds. Orion, who still looks like Bane, and Alistair jump out of the way to avoid getting mowed down when we sprint out onto the flat stone ground outside.
Surprise and relief flashes across Alistair’s face when he sees Lavendera, but he quickly wipes the expression off his features and snaps his mouth shut. We can’t risk saying anything that will tip her off to the fact that she is being tricked.
“Let’s go,” Isera repeats, her own naturally authoritative tone blending with Jessina’s voice perfectly.
Lurching into motion, we race back towards the side gate. Isera and Orion lead the charge while Alistair and I bring up the rear. Lavendera stays in the middle, and she continues keeping her mouth shut.
Chaos is spreading rapidly across the palace grounds.
Someone has found the guard that I killed, and servants are now running towards the castle to raise the alarm.
Everywhere I look, people are yelling and darting across the ground with panic in their eyes.
Most of them are probably remembering the human uprising a few months ago, which must have been very frightening for the ordinary civilians who work here.
“Clear the way!” Orion bellows in Bane’s voice as we close the distance to the side gate.
The panicked servants who had gathered there leap back at the sound of their emperor’s voice and immediately start stammering apologies. As if they are somehow responsible for the guard that I killed or the fact that his corpse is now blocking the way.
We simply leap over it as we run through the open gate and back out onto the sloping mountainside outside the high defensive walls. I suck in a deep breath of relief as we leave the Ice Palace behind and continue down the path that leads down towards the city.
Even though it has been months since I was trapped in this castle with an iron collar around my throat, my entire soul still balks at being back inside those thick ice walls.
And it must be even worse for Isera and Alistair, who suffered a lot more than I did in there.
I glance over at Alistair as we run towards the first fork in the path.
He is clenching his jaw slightly, but apart from that, he shows nothing on his face.
It must have been truly horrible for him to return to the kennels, where he was locked in a cage for weeks.
Same with Isera. She ran all the way up to the Icehearts’ private wing to find Lavendera.
I don’t know exactly what the Icehearts put her and Alistair through in there, but it can’t have been easy for her to return.
Alistair suddenly sucks in a sharp breath.
I snap my gaze to him.
Alarm flashes in his eyes as he jerks his chin towards the left and then the right. I flick my gaze from side to side while we turn right and sprint down the path that leads directly down into the city rather than towards the Silver Clan barracks and the library.
Ice spreads through my veins.
There, on the horizon in both directions, silver dragons are starting to return to the city.
My heart leaps into my throat. We need to make it to the empty house where Grey has a portal waiting for us before they reach the city. Or Draven, Galen, and Lyra are going to be in the fight of their lives.
“Uhm,” Alistair begins in an effort to bring that to Isera and Orion’s attention without blowing their cover.
“I see it,” Isera confirms.
Running beside her, Orion flicks a glance at her before casting a quick look back at us. His eyes are serious and full of warning. “It won’t be long.”
I swallow down a flash of dread, because I understand exactly what his warning meant. It won’t be long now before Nysara’s magic runs out and their glamour disappears. We need to make it to the portal before then.
Before the magic runs out.
Before the silver dragons get too close.
Before Draven and the others have to shift and engage in battle.
Before Lavendera can figure out that this is an abduction and not a mission from the Icehearts.
Blood pounds in my ears as we sprint the final distance down the path and towards the first street ahead.
The silver dragons are getting closer on all sides.
I flick my gaze desperately over the rooftops, praying to Mabona that Draven doesn’t shift yet.
Panicked screams echo across the city as the civilian dragon shifters rush back to their homes to take cover.
My lungs burn as we hurtle down the street and then take a sharp left before going right.
For the first time, Lavendera casts a confused glance behind her.
Alistair and I just look back at her, trying to project a calm that I’m sure neither of us feels.
People scramble out of the way as we charge down the next road.
A market square opens up at the other end of it.
I drag in short shallow breaths while trying to block out the exhaustion that courses through me.
We’re not even halfway to the portal yet.
Since we couldn’t set it up in a place where any dragon shifter might find it, we had to open it in one of the now empty areas where the humans used to live.
Unfortunately, those areas are located farthest from the castle.
Dragon shifters are hurriedly shoving wares down into carts and pushing them into the buildings that line the market as we cross it. They still think a massive attack is incoming, and they’re trying to protect their livelihoods from being destroyed in the fighting.
I whip my head from side to side, but from down here, I can no longer see the horizons clearly. My heart hammers in my chest. I have no idea how close the silver dragons are to the city.
“We need to—” Isera begins.
Her glamour drops.
And so does Orion’s.
Panic shoots up my spine as the fake Jessina and Bane who used to run at the head of our little group suddenly transform back into Isera and Orion.
Jessina’s white hair turns black, and her glittering silver dress becomes black fighting leathers.
Next to her, Bane’s smooth black hair changes to a dark blue color, and a spiky black crown appears on his head.
The silver formal wear bleeds into dark blue and black, with only hints of silver decorations.
Lavendera slams to a halt in the middle of the market square.
It’s so abrupt that I almost barrel right into her.
Throwing myself sideways, I barely manage to jump out of the way and come to a halt a few steps from her instead. On her other side, Alistair stumbles upright as well.
“No,” Lavendera says. Shock laces that one word, and her face is full of disbelief as she stares at Isera and Orion.
They glance down at their own bodies, no doubt confirming that the slight shimmer, which is what people see from the inside of a glamour, is now gone. Then they turn slowly to face Lavendera.
“No!” she repeats. This time, the word rips out of her like a desperate scream.
“We’re getting you out,” I tell her.
Her gaze snaps to me, and fury burns in her pink and purple eyes. “I don’t want to get out! I can’t.”
“You don’t—”
Branches shoot towards me. A gasp rips from my lips, and I throw myself to the side right before they can crash into my chest. Rolling across the cobblestones, I leap to my feet right as fire roars through the air.
“Get away from me!” Lavendera screams.
I stare in shock as trees and branches and roots shoot out from around Lavendera and stab out in all four directions towards all of us in one massive attack. Jumping back, I yank out my knife and slash at the branches that try to ensnare me.
A dragon roars overhead.
Snapping my gaze up, I find four silver dragons speeding across the rooftops. Winds slam down into the market square from their wings as they pass.
A second later, three black dragons explode into view atop the rooftops farther to my left.
Dread crashes over me.
No. No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Draven, Lyra, and Galen, now in their dragon forms, let out bellowing roars as they shoot up into the sky. The four silver dragons screech and turn sharply in the air, focusing on them instead.
Wings boom as Draven and the others fly towards them at full speed. Opening their jaws, they breathe massive torrents of fire that shoot straight towards the silver dragons.
I dive forward as another tree slams towards me.