Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Afireball slams into the arrow, incinerating it one single second before it can pierce Draven’s neck. But he doesn’t even have time to look in Alistair’s direction, because another hail of arrows shoots towards us.
I leap back as arrows speed through the air from all sides. Storm winds howl through the trees as Draven summons his magic to sweep them aside while Isera yanks up an ice shield in front of Orion right before an arrow can hit him in the eye.
Panic clangs through me as I yank out my dagger and whip my head from side to side, trying to locate our attackers. My shoulder still screams in pain, and exhaustion rolls through my entire body.
Battle cries echo between the trees.
Then a horde of dragon shifters sprint out from between the trees, swords and bows raised. The leader goes straight for Draven.
When I see her, my mind just… stops.
Diana Artemisia, leader of the Purple Dragon Clan, swings a sword straight at Draven’s chest while half of her soldiers fire arrows at us from between the trees and the rest charge forward with blades as well.
Diana who is supposed to be our ally. Diana who is supposed to be all the way back in her homeland right now where she is supposed to be creating the distraction that made the Icehearts fly away from Frostfell.
How did she make it here so quickly? And why the hell is she attacking us?
Steel flashes in the corner of my eye.
Throwing myself to the side, I barely manage to evade the sword aimed for my head.
Arrows continue pelting us from all sides.
Ice, fire, storm winds, and tree magic flash around me as my friends work to block the ranged attacks while at the same time trying to fend off the people with swords while also trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
I yank up my dagger to block another sword strike while twisting myself out of reach of a third one. My heart leaps into my throat as more arrows cut through the air. They hit a shield of ice with wooden snapping sounds as Isera yanks up a wall on my left before they can reach me.
“Diana!” Draven bellows while parrying her strikes with his sword. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m sorry,” she says, but she doesn’t stop. Her sword flashes through the air as she attacks Draven relentlessly. “I don’t have a choice.”
Draven, who looks to be holding back since he doesn’t want to kill someone who is supposed to be our ally, stares at her in shock and confusion while yanking up his blade to block her strike and sending wind magic crashing through the trees to knock the arrows away at the same time.
Understanding hits me like a punch to the gut.
While ducking another sword, I leap back and twist out of the way of another arrow. My head spins and there is a panicked ringing inside my skull. I don’t want to be right about this. If I am, we might have just lost the war without even knowing how.
“Lavendera!” I scream. “Cancel all orders.”
She doesn’t reply.
Whipping my head towards her, I find her still kneeling on the ground, staring at the scene around her with wide eyes. The Dryad Queen is back on her feet, defending Lavendera with vicious fury.
“Lavendera!” I yell again while yanking up my blade to block another sword. Metal clashes against metal. “All the orders you have issued through dragon steel, all the orders that are floating around there in the back of your mind, cancel them!”
Her eyes snap back into focus. Giving her head a hard shake, she leaps back up to her feet and closes her eyes as she no doubt focuses on canceling all her previous orders.
Vines shoot up in front of her as the Dryad Queen protects her from a massive hail of arrows.
“STOP!” Diana screams.
The soldier who was about to slam his sword into my neck freezes mid-swing.
I whirl towards Diana right as she grabs the piece of dragon scale on her armor that protects her forearm.
Her green eyes are filled with fury as she yanks off that piece of armor and drops it on the ground.
She is still holding her sword, but she pulls out a short knife from her belt as well. I tense up.
Two steps in front of her, Draven flexes his grip on his own sword but makes no move to attack her.
With a scream, she rams the knife down into her forearm and slices a deep cut. Blood wells up from the wound, but she just shoves her knife back in its sheath and digs her fingers into her arm. Then a hiss rips from her lips, and she yanks her hand back.
“Get it out!” she yells, desperation lacing her voice, as she flicks wild eyes between me and Isera. “Get it out!”
I lurch into motion, but Isera is closer. Taking three long steps across the now flattened grass, she grabs Diana by the wrist and reaches into the wound with her other hand. Gritting her teeth, she pulls.
A sickening, wet, snapping sound echoes between the trees.
Then Isera pulls out a piece of dragon steel from Diana’s arm.
I feel like I’m going to be sick. This cannot be happening. If this is real, it would mean—
“I tried to tell you,” Diana yells at Draven, that desperation still lacing her voice.
“Azaroth’s flame, I did everything I could to make you understand.
I tried to convince you that you couldn’t trust me.
I told you, God damn it. Right before you left my lands, I told you that I wasn’t on your side! ”
My entire body turns cold. Dread spreads through my every vein like ice as I stare at Diana while my mind tries desperately to deny what is unfolding before my eyes.
“I tried to warn you!” Diana yells again, her eyes wild as her gaze darts between all of us. “And now, you’ve walked right into their trap!”
“How long?” Draven begins. Disbelief shines on his whole face as he stares at her. He swallows. “How long have you been wearing dragon steel?”
“Since after I sent my people to kill you outside the Ice Palace. It was my punishment for that.” Shaking her head, she looks between us all desperately.
“They were playing you from the very beginning. They made it overly obvious that Rin was wearing dragon steel so that you wouldn’t suspect that I was too.
And now, you’ve walked right into their trap. ”
“What trap?”
“Azaroth’s flame, we need to get out of here! Now. He was right behind me.”
“Diana!” Draven locks commanding eyes on her. “What trap?”
“The archives.” Fear blows across her face. “They used you to break the wards on the archives.”
“What archives?” I ask, dumbfounded.
Then realization slams into me with such force that I stagger a step back.
“No,” I breathe. But it’s more of a desperate plea than a refusal.
“They ordered me to tell you that they were looking for the Gold Clan,” she says.
“And that Lavendera was in charge of it. All so that it would plant the idea in your mind that something important was happening inside a library. Then, when they had everything ready, they spread the word among their elite soldiers that Lavendera was locked in the library while working on something important, so that you would take the bait and break into it.”
“No,” I repeat, my mind still refusing to believe it.
“She’s right,” Lavendera says quietly. “After the Icehearts threatened to destroy the Green Clan’s archives in order to make them swear allegiance, they managed to ward them.
The library with the archives was physically in the Icehearts’ possession, but they could no longer get inside.
They have been torturing members of the Green Clan for millennia, trying to get them to drop the wards.
It has never worked.” Her gaze slides to me.
“That all changed when they realized what you can do.”
My heart jerks. “Me?”
“They had never considered it before. They’ve always seen emotion magic as a weak type of magic.
But after the human rebellion you ignited in Frostfell, they realized that there is a way to break the spirit of someone who refuses to break.
” She gives me a sad smile. “You simply change their emotions so that there is no spirit left.”
Staggering a step back, I drag in an unsteady breath.
“That guard who was handcuffed to the door of the library was a member of the Green Clan and the current guardian of the wards,” she continues. “He has never broken under torture. So they used you to break him.”
My head rings. I feel like my skull has been hit by a giant hammer.
But it makes sense. Goddess above, it all makes sense.
The countless memories of being tortured by the Icehearts that Orion could see.
The library that looked like no one had been in for ages.
The Silver Clan soldiers rushing in to secure the building as soon as the door was open.
Kander von Graf in the dungeon rambling about how he felt something fall.
Even the door was fucking green, for Mabona’s sake.
Alarm suddenly shoots up my spine, and I snap my gaze to Draven. “Kander was in the Ice Palace dungeon. He’s here.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Diana yells, and swings an arm out to stab a hand in the direction of the city. “He was right behind me! With the archives on the line, he will do whatever the Icehearts want. And they want him to—”
“Change our memories,” I finish for her, dread pulsing inside me like a living breathing thing.
“Oh fuck,” Alistair says.
Shock and disbelief and utter fucking rage burn inside me. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that they managed to play us this thoroughly. Goddess above, how could I have been so stupid?
We have been such fools. All this time, we’ve been outmaneuvered.
They used us. From the very beginning, they used us.
We might have gotten Lavendera. But they got everything else.
They lost the battle but won the war. With the Green Clan at their complete mercy, they can change our memories and make it so that we don’t even know each other.
I drag in an unsteady breath. How the hell are we supposed to win now? For every step we take forward, they take two more.
Clenching my hand into a fist, I try to breathe through the panic and fury inside me. I am so fucking tired of being outsmarted.
Draven whirls towards Orion. “When will Grey realize that we’ve had to change to the backup plan and open a portal here instead?”
The Unseelie King slides his gaze to Draven and opens his mouth.
A dragon roars above us.
I gasp as ice flames slam down straight towards us through the canopy.
Fire surges up from right next to me.
Throwing my arms over my head, I curl up in a ball to protect myself from the insane heat that crashes over me as a massive dome of fire shoots up right above us.
The ice flames from the silver dragons above slam into Alistair’s fire dome with a sharp hissing sound that makes steam explode through the air.
The Dryad Queen screams as the fire burns through the entire canopy above us.
Then the ice flames stop, and Alistair collapses down on one knee. His entire body sways and his eyes slide in and out of focus. Using that much raw power that quickly, and after all the battles we have already been fighting, must have depleted most of his energy.
With no leaves and branches blocking the way, I can now see the mass of silver dragons that hover in the air above us.
“Get down!” Draven bellows.
I throw myself down flat on the ground right before black smoke explodes across the grass.
My heart jerks as Draven in his dragon form appears above us.
His legs crush the grass only mere strides away from where we were standing.
With a roar that rattles my very bones, he leaps into the sky and beats his massive wings while breathing fire at the dragons above.
“Stay down!” Galen yells while lightning cracks across the sky as Draven summons his magic.
More black smoke explodes above us as Galen and Lyra shift one after the other and leap into the sky as well. Winds slam down over us from their beating wings as they fly up to help Draven.
The rest of us leap back to our feet. Through the now missing canopy, I can see a mass of silver dragons speeding across the fields and heading straight towards us.
All around us, the Purple Clan looks to Diana. She hesitates.
“Help them!” I scream at her.
“We need to get out of here,” Isera snaps over the booming wings and roaring fire from above as she turns to Orion. “When is—”
I react on instinct.
One moment, I’m standing on the grass.
The next thing I know, I’m tackling Isera out of the way as something green shoots through the air.
“Kander!” Diana yells at the leader of the Green Clan, who has suddenly appeared from the trees.
Isera crashes down on the grass from my unexpected shove but whirls towards me right as Kander’s attack hits me.
The force of it is enough to throw me backwards.
I hit the ground hard and roll several times before I manage to push myself up to my knees again. My fingers are gripping the hilt of my knife hard. I glance down at it. But I appear to have made it without accidentally stabbing myself.
“Selena,” a shocked voice says from a few strides away.
Looking up, I’m met by a pair of stunned blue and silver eyes.
I glance over my shoulder before turning back to meet her gaze again. My brows furrow in confusion.
“Who’s Selena?”