Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Orion hits him with the full power of his magic. Bane gasps. Whipping his head from side to side, he desperately tries to figure out what just happened as the room around him disappears and is instead replaced by whatever horrible memory Orion is showing him.
I’m just about to slam him with my own magic when Gremar lurches towards Bane as if to protect him, which is when I realize that I didn’t tell him that he couldn’t help Bane after the trap had already been sprung.
Panic shoots up my spine, and I shove my magic into the dragon steel around Gremar’s wrist instead.
“Don’t move!” I blurt out.
He immediately stops halfway through a stride.
I suck in a breath of relief. It’s followed by a sense of wicked satisfaction.
All my life, other people have been ordering me around.
Everyone from the dragon shifters who patrol our court to the master of the Fishing Guild to the leaders of the fae resistance to random strangers in town who simply want their own needs met.
So to have this kind of absolute power over someone, where they obey my every word, feels shockingly good.
“Selena,” Orion snaps.
Giving my head a quick shake, I yank myself out of that weird feeling and once more focus on the problem at hand. Gremar is still standing there, frozen mid-step, but Emperor Bane has staggered several steps to the side. And not the side that we want him to be on.
Summoning my magic again, I shove it at the flame of fear in his chest.
I jerk back in shock when it isn’t there. The memories that Orion shows people usually involve fear in some way.
Quickly releasing that emotion, I shove several more at his chest until something sticks. To my surprise, the one that I find blazing in his chest when he watches those memories is despair. Latching on to that black flame, I start pouring even more magic into it.
Bane sucks in an unsteady breath and stumbles. I force more magic into him, turning that black flame of despair into a raging wildfire that is big enough to consume his whole body.
His knees buckle.
Somewhere outside, a dragon roars.
Part of me, an incredibly big part of me, still thinks that we should just kill him now while we have the chance.
But Draven said that if we kill Bane, Jessina will feel him die through their mate bond.
And then, all bets are off. Apparently, if we kill him before we’ve been able to trap or at least neutralize Jessina, the final thin thread of her restraint is going to snap completely and she is going to fly straight over the Seelie Court and kill every single person in the city with her ice flames.
So instead of shoving my dagger into Bane’s throat, which is what I really want to do, I simply keep pouring my magic into him while Orion grabs his now trembling body and starts hauling him towards the portal on his right.
The Unseelie King said that everything was ready on the other side, so I turn towards Gremar instead.
But in order to command him through the dragon steel, I need to first sever my connection to Bane.
Glancing over my shoulder, I find Orion shoving him in through the portal.
There should be soldiers waiting in there to help their king, so he should be fine with just his own magic for a few seconds.
Cutting off the magic to Bane, I spin back to face Gremar. His body is shaking slightly, and sweat rolls down his temple, as he has to strain his muscles to keep the unnatural pose that my previous order trapped him in.
“Now, you are going to lead Jessina through this portal as well,” I begin. “Without her finding out that it is a trap and without helping her in anyway.”
He just glares back at me in silence.
That’s when I realize that the order not to move is still in effect.
I cast another stressed look back at where Orion is waiting for me to come and help him while I quickly flick through those orders floating at the back of my mind.
Once I find the one that prevents Gremar from moving, I imagine myself snuffing out those glowing words the way I would a candle.
Gremar immediately staggers forward and then straightens properly.
“I will kill you for this,” he growls at me, and the utter fury in his brown eyes informs me that he means every word of that.
But he can’t do anything else, because I ordered him to go and get Jessina now, so he simply spins on his heel and stalks back out the door.
Once he’s gone, I dart through the portal.
On the other side, I find a dungeon filled with chaos.
Grey is standing right next to me, keeping the portal open.
But across the rough stone floor, Orion and four guards are trying to shove Bane into a sturdy chair that has been bolted to the floor, but the emperor is fighting back even though he is still trapped in his memories as well.
Summoning my magic, I slam it into his chest.
Something almost like a sob of hopelessness rips from his throat, and his body goes limp, as I turn that black flame of despair into a raging wildfire again. Orion and his soldiers at last manage to shove him into the chair and shackle him to it.
The Unseelie King flicks his long dark blue hair back behind his shoulder and turns to arch an eyebrow at me. “Selena, how nice of you to finally join us.”
“I had to order Gremar to get Jessina,” I reply, giving him a pointed look back.
He clicks his tongue but doesn’t argue, since he knows that I would need to cut the flow of my magic to do that and therefore couldn’t help him with Bane this past minute.
I glance back at the portal that Grey is still keeping open.
When Draven and the others see Gremar returning for Jessina, they will know that the plan is on track and will start making their way back to the portal as well so that they can ambush Jessina when she gets here while Orion and I focus on keeping Bane down.
Faelights have been set into parts of the dark stone ceiling.
They, along with the faint blue glow coming from Grey’s portal, provide the only illumination in this otherwise darkened cell.
I’m not sure exactly where, but I know that this dungeon is located somewhere underneath Orion’s palace in the Unseelie Court.
The gleaming gems cast harsh shadows across Bane’s face where he sits shackled to the metal chair in the middle of the room. I study him.
The emperor thrashes in his chair, throwing his head from side to side while those pitiful sounds escape his throat.
Seeing him like that honestly shocks me.
He has always been so confident and powerful and in control.
But now, when Orion is forcing him to relive his worst memories, he looks disturbingly like a real person with real emotions.
“What are you showing him?” I find myself asking.
Orion glances at me from the corner of his eye before shifting his attention back to our prisoner. “His worst memories from when he was enslaved by some of the fae from your court.”
My heart jerks and then starts pounding in my chest. Biting my lip, I try to suppress the sudden flash of morbid curiosity.
No one in our court knows anything real about that time period since all the history books were destroyed and all the people who were involved were killed.
But here is a firsthand witness whose memories are still intact.
“Can you…” I begin, and then clear my throat a little self-consciously. “Can you show me too?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Orion asks, still keeping his eyes on Bane.
“Yes.”
He nods. “I can make you a spectator in the memory. Grab my wrist. It will keep you from moving here in the real world. Squeeze it when you want out.”
“Okay,” I breathe.
My heart hammers against my ribs as I move closer to Orion’s side and grab his wrist in a firm grip.
Without warning, he thrusts me into Bane Iceheart’s memories.
The abrupt shift stuns me so much that I almost lose the grip on my own magic.
With immense effort, I manage to keep my connection to the black wildfire of despair in Bane’s chest while the dungeon around me is now replaced by a muddy field.
I keep a tight grip on Orion’s wrist to stop myself from trying to walk forward.
Bane and Jessina are standing on the grass in front of me, but they look nothing like how I’m used to seeing them.
Instead of carrying themselves with royal grace while wearing glittering silver garments, they’re practically cowering where they’re standing on the grass.
Dressed in worn rags, they look dirty, exhausted, and terrified.
I appear to be looking through the eyes of a fae man, and there are three more fae standing next to me on the grass.
“Please, sir,” Bane is saying, his voice trembling. “We just flew all the way to the Green Wilds and back. We need to rest before we can shift and carry you again.”
“I don’t care what you need,” the fae man to my right snaps. “We’ve got things to do.” His eyes begin glowing. “Now, shift.”
The memory ends and is immediately replaced by another one. The sudden change makes me almost tilt forward, and I’m glad that Orion told me to hold on to his wrist. When the world around me keeps changing like this, it’s difficult to remember where my body actually is.
When the next memory stabilizes, we’re inside what appears to be a dark stable. Rotting hay covers the floor, and short wooden walls frame the box where the horse should be. Except there is no horse in it. Instead, Bane and Jessina are kneeling there on the hay.
“Please don’t make us sleep in here,” Jessina is saying, her voice soft and pleading.