Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
When we step through the portal, my mind is calm and clear. I have been able to wrest the black rage and dark hatred back behind the walls inside me again so that I will be able to make smart decisions during this hostage exchange instead of letting Jessina provoke me into making stupid mistakes.
Or so I thought.
It only takes three seconds for that roaring fury inside me to come crashing back.
The meeting place that Jessina specified is the ballroom in the Golden Palace where we had the commencement ball during the Atonement Trials.
However, all the side tables, white tablecloths, gleaming silver decorations, pitchers, and wine glasses have been removed.
Now, only the glittering golden chandeliers in the high ceiling remain, making the large room feel cavernous.
But that is not what makes my vision flash red due to undiluted rage. It’s what meets me when I come to a halt on the floor a few steps from the portal.
Jessina Iceheart is standing there in the same silver-sparkling dress that she wore when she and Bane ambushed us in this castle yesterday.
Her white hair has been pulled back from her face in a simple braid this time, and the hem of her dress is slightly muddy.
No doubt from her unglamorous visit to Hunter’s Marsh.
Next to her is Lavendera, who is currently staring at the wall across the room with that strange blank look she gets on her face when she is disassociating from the world.
To their left and right, ten of the Icehearts’ elite soldiers are spread out.
But my gaze goes straight to the man kneeling in front of Jessina.
Draven.
He is still wearing his black dragon scale armor, but his face is bloody and his eyes are glassy with pain. His hands have been shackled in front of him. And his wings…
Bile crawls up my throat.
Not only has she whipped his wings again.
She has also chained them together. Thick iron manacles encircle the bones that frame the top of his wings.
They have simply been locked right through his wings in those places, tearing the thin membrane that is supposed to be there.
A short chain runs from one manacle to the other, trapping his wings together behind him and preventing him from spreading them out to his sides.
The black rage and dark hatred surge up inside me like tidal waves as I stare at him.
That lone speck of light that remains inside my soul flickers precariously.
I can barely hear anything over the roaring in my ears.
I’m going to kill her for this.
I’m going to kill them all for this.
“What have you done?” Galen demands in a horrified voice as he comes to a halt on the floor next to me.
We have already planned exactly how we are going to stand so that we will be able to get Draven out of here as quickly as possible regardless of what the trap might be.
Across the polished floor, Jessina flashes us a vicious smile. “I’ve done far less to him than a traitor of his caliber deserves. I would’ve done much worse,” her pale gray eyes slide to me, and her expression sharpens like a blade, “if you hadn’t started playing your little game of tit for tat.”
I just stare back at her, my head still roaring with fury, while suddenly wishing that Isera had been even more brutal while she was already at it.
Lyra clenches her fist and grits her teeth where she is standing a little behind and to the left of Galen.
Orion remains closest to the portal, while Alistair is closer to the front.
Isera hauls Bane with her through the portal and shoves the drugged-up emperor down on his knees between me and her.
Galen, who is standing a little ahead of us, remains as a barrier between Bane and Jessina, in case she is going to try something very direct.
Fury pulses across Jessina’s face when she sees the blood on her mate’s body.
“When we win this war, I’m going to make you all watch as I torture the person you love most until they’re begging for death,” she promises, threats dripping from her voice like acid.
Isera holds her stare with cold eyes. “You already have.”
That vicious smile on Jessina’s lips widens. But all she says is, “Let’s trade, then.”
“One person leads the hostage to the middle of the room,” Galen begins. “They trade and then walk back to their side.”
“Fine.” Jessina flicks her wrist and then looks to Lavendera. “Remove the dragon steel from his wrist.”
My gaze darts down to Draven’s shackled wrists. But because the manacles are in the way, I can’t see anything.
Lavendera just stands there for another second, staring unseeing at the wall across the room.
Then she blinks hard and at last returns to the world around her.
Moving gracefully across the floor, she crouches down in front of Draven and pushes the manacles up higher.
It reveals the thin bracelet of dragon steel that Alistair bent with his fire magic.
However, it looks to have been cut on one side so that it could be wedged onto Draven’s wrist.
With efficient moves, Lavendera pries it from his wrist and then stands up again.
“Thank you for returning that to me, by the way,” Jessina says, her smug smile directed at me.
On the floor, Draven drags in a deep breath and tries to blink his eyes into focus. But he is clearly too severely wounded to be able to fight back.
“Take him to the middle and complete the exchange,” Jessina orders as her gaze returns to Lavendera.
Lavendera says nothing. She just gently slides her arm underneath Draven’s and helps him to his feet.
On our side, I simply grab Bane’s shoulder and yank him to his feet. We had to let Haldia partly heal his thighs so that we wouldn’t have to drag him. But we left most of the wounds untreated.
Only the slow thudding of our feet puncture the silence as the four of us start walking towards the middle of the room.
I keep my gaze shifting between Jessina, Draven, Lavendera, Bane, and the elite soldiers ahead.
We have several plans in case she tries something, but I need to be able to see what it is before it actually happens in order to be of any use.
However, Jessina doesn’t do anything. She simply stands there in her slightly muddy dress, watching me with sharp eyes.
Lavendera and I reach the middle of the room.
We pause for a moment, then we push our hostage forward at the same time.
Draven stumbles into me.
My heart skips a beat at just feeling him close to me again. All I want to do is to hug him and tell him that everything will be okay. But I can’t. First, we need to get him to safety.
I shift my gaze to Lavendera as I start backing across the floor while supporting Draven with a firm arm around his waist.
“I will never forgive you for this,” I tell her as she starts doing the same with Bane.
“I don’t want forgiveness,” she replies. But she doesn’t say it in a challenging way. Instead, her voice sounds… sad.
Not knowing how to respond to that, I just continue backing across the floor. My gaze flits from face to face as I try to anticipate where the trap will come from. We have almost reached our own sides of the room now. Whatever Jessina has planned, it’s going to happen soon.
My heart thunders in my chest as I back the final distance to Galen.
The moment I’m within reach, he grabs Draven, spins them both around and shoves his best friend straight into Lyra’s arms. Lyra does the same, whirling around and maneuvering Draven into Orion’s range. Within a heartbeat, the Unseelie King has disappeared through the portal with Draven.
The whole thing took barely more than a few seconds.
Across the floor, Jessina jerks back slightly in surprise. Then annoyance flits across her face as she glances at the portal while her elite soldiers take Bane from Lavendera.
I let out a shuddering breath of relief as the rest of us start quickly retreating towards the portal as well. Whatever happens now, at least Draven made it out safely.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Jessina calls, and raises her hand. “We’re not done yet.”
Lyra slips out through the portal, shortly followed by Galen. Isera, Alistair, and I have almost reached it as well.
There is movement from the side of the room as another group of people suddenly start moving across the floor.
“Go!” I hiss.
Isera darts through the portal.
“There is someone who wants to see you, Selena,” Jessina calls right before I can step through the portal as well.
My gaze flits towards the new group of people.
And my heart stops.
“If I see either of your eyes glowing, they die,” Jessina warns from across the room.
Alistair has stopped next to me instead of going through the portal, but I can’t spare him even a glance, because my eyes are locked on the two people who are being led over to where Jessina is standing.
My parents.
Fear pulses across their faces as they are forced to their knees in front of Jessina, but resentment quickly joins that emotion in their eyes when their gazes land on me.
“Mom.” The panicked word escapes my lips without permission. “Dad.”
Terror crashes through me as Jessina summons two blades of ice with her magic and positions them in front of my parents’ throats. They flinch, fear pulsing across their faces again. I drag in an unsteady breath.
Rooted on the floor, all I can do is to just stare at them.
“Selena,” Alistair whispers from next to me.
But I don’t reply. And I don’t move. The portal is right behind us. Two more steps, and we’re through it. But I can’t leave them. They’re… they’re my parents. I can’t leave them.
“Let them go,” I snarl, rage ripping through my soul, as I snap my gaze back up to Empress Jessina.
A cruel smile curls her lips, and her pale gray eyes harden. “Do you really think you’re in a position to make demands?”
The ice blades press tighter against my parents’ throats. I cast a panicked look down at them. Fear and hatred shine in their eyes as they stare at me accusingly from across the floor.
It makes my chest twist in pain.
I drag my gaze up to Jessina. “What do you want?”
“What do I want?” She lets out a vicious, mocking laugh. “I want you to learn a lesson, slave.”
“What lesson?”
She glances towards Bane, pain and anger in her pale eyes, before her merciless gaze locks on me again. “A lesson in how a war against me works.”
“Which is what?”
“You take one of mine.” She motions towards the portal where Draven disappeared and then towards my parents. “I take three of yours.” Her eyes sharpen like unyielding steel. “So don’t you ever dare touch my mate again.”
Dark rage flares inside me. “I could say the same to you.”
“No, you can’t. Because I’m the one with the hostages. And you’re not ruthless enough to back up your threats.” Her eyes glint as she raises her hand slightly. “But guess what, slave?”
I just hold her stare with eyes full of rage and hatred.
She flashes me a smile dripping with malice. “I am.”
My parents suck in a sharp breath.
She slits their throats.