Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
W armth from the roaring hearth flows across the already packed tavern, making me sweat underneath my thick black cloak. I push the fabric away from my legs and arms as much as I can where I’m seated in one of the booths at the back of the room. But unfortunately, I can’t lower the hood since it’s the only thing keeping my pointed ears and my glowing two-colored eyes hidden from the rest of the patrons here.
While cupping my hands around a mug of ale that I swiped from a deserted table when I arrived, I keep my head slightly bowed to further shield my eyes from view as I continue to pour my magic into the pale red flames of anger that now burn intently in everyone’s chests.
When I got here, most humans in this tavern were just tired from a long day at work. Some were even in a fairly good mood. But after a few strategic whispers to a few strategic tables in the middle, and a steady stream of my magic, this entire tavern is now pulsing with pent-up rage. I keep feeding it.
“We need to do something,” a human man whispers to his companion at the table next to mine. “This is our city. It was our city long before the Icehearts came with their Silver Clan and took everything. Our ancestors built it with their sweat and blood and tears. And now, we are second-class citizens in our own home. We need to take it back.”
His companion nods, but there is worry in his voice when he replies, “I agree. But would we even stand a chance? They’re fucking dragons, mate.”
“I know. But we are the majority.”
I let the connection to everyone’s anger fade and instead push at the tiny sparks of courage in these two men’s chests. Pouring my magic into them, I let those courageous sparks flare into wildfires.
The first man thumps his fist against the table while determination pulses across his face. “Come on, let’s start tonight. I have an idea.”
Chairs scrape against the wooden floorboards as the two of them shoot to their feet and stride towards the door with determined steps.
Bowing my head even more, I hide the villainous smile that spreads across my lips.
All around me, people are discussing and arguing and complaining with angry voices. Even though I have already cut off my steady flow of magic, the effect of it still remains. Because once I blow that spark of rage into a massive fire, it takes time for it to die down on its own.
Firelight from the hearth flickers across the pale wooden furniture and the angry faces all around me. I can’t hear what all groups are saying, but because I set the stage with my strategic whispers earlier, I’m assuming that most of them are angry at the Iceheart Dynasty.
“Azaroth’s flame, I hate them so fucking much,” a male voice snaps to my left.
My heart leaps into my throat. Only dragon shifters curse by Azaroth. While still keeping my head down and my hood up, I discreetly glance towards the left.
The empty table where the two human men used to sit is still unoccupied, which now allows me to see the table behind it. Four male dragon shifters are seated there. Two with brown hair, one with blond hair, and one with silver hair. All of them look incredibly angry.
I curse silently in my mind. I didn’t know that there were dragon shifters in this tavern too. When I manipulated people’s anger, I did it to everyone in here since that was the most efficient option. But that means that I have been increasing these dragon shifters’ anger as well.
“If they hadn’t used dragon steel on us, we wouldn’t have to live in this fucking city full of dirty, wrinkly, and uncivilized humans,” the brown-haired one with orange eyes continues.
“That’s right,” the blond one growls while clenching his fist. “If we didn’t have to fight that fucking war to free ourselves, we wouldn’t have had to burn our ancestral lands to the ground.”
My heart skips a beat. They burned their homeland in the war?
A sudden thought crackles through me.
Is that why they went back and took Lavendera too? Because they found out that she has tree magic and they’re planning to use her to restore their homeland?
“Fuck, did you see that silver-haired bitch at the banquet?” Orange Eyes says. “All dressed up in a pretty ballgown, as if she isn’t a savage like the rest of her people. Fuck, I hate her so much.”
“At least Commander Ryat put her in her place,” Blondie says.
Orange Eyes snickers. “Watching her crawl and lick his boots was the most satisfying thing I’ve seen all year.”
The other three laugh. It’s a mocking and vicious sound.
My head goes unnaturally silent. Because I suddenly realize who they’re talking about.
Me.
They are talking about me .
The shifter with silver hair leans back in his seat and stretches his arms above his head. “Agreed.”
“If she was my slave, I would fucking humiliate her,” Orange Eyes continues, his voice laced with malice. “I would rip that fucking dress off her and make her walk naked everywhere. Nah, actually, I wouldn’t even let her walk. I’d make her crawl on all fours everywhere. That’d teach her. That’d show her that she’s nothing more than a filthy savage animal.”
The others laugh again.
Pain pulses through my entire chest, and treacherous tears press against my eyes.
These people hate me. They don’t even know me. But they hate me.
Iron bands squeeze around my heart until I can barely breathe through a sudden sense of searing hurt.
Deep down, I know that it’s ridiculous and pathetic and that I shouldn’t feel like this. But hearing how much these people hate me, people who have never even spoken to me and who know absolutely nothing about me, hurts. Deeply.
That desperate little girl inside me still wants people to like me. It’s stupid, I know that. I shouldn’t care about other people’s opinions of me. But I do.
I guess that’s what happens when you grow up being taught that everything is your fault and that you need to atone.
Bitterness floods my veins, and I desperately lean into that hardness that I started to build around my heart at the end of the Atonement Trials.
Why should I care what these people think?
Why is their opinion of me worth more than my own, when I know myself better than they do?
“That’s it!” a man suddenly screams somewhere to my right. “I’ve fucking had it!”
I whip my head towards him. As does the rest of the tavern.
A muscular human man in stained worker’s clothes is stalking towards the four dragon shifters on my left.
“This is our pub,” he declares, and stabs a hand at the shifters. “Go drink somewhere else.”
Wood grinds against wood as the four dragon shifters push back their chairs and shoot to their feet, rage pulsing across their faces as well.
“Your pub?” Orange Eyes echoes.
“Yeah,” the human replies, he swings his arm to the side and points to the door instead. “So go find your own.”
My heart patters against my ribs. Mabona’s tits. They’re going to start a fight right here. I can’t get caught in the middle of this.
Sliding out of my chair, I discreetly try to slink away. But I’m trapped between them and the wall. I flick my gaze from side to side as two more humans close in on the shifters.
“You heard him,” one of them says.
Keeping my head down, I hurry past behind him while the shifters are focused on the humans.
“Back off!” the silver-haired shifter bellows right as I dart past.
Something heavy hits me in the side.
I gasp and stumble sideways as one of the humans suddenly slams into me from the side after he was shoved back by the dragon shifter. The shove catches him so off guard that he doesn’t even try to stay on his feet. He topples backwards, crashing into me and making us both hit the floor.
Steel rings as the four shifters grab the swords that they had kept leaning against their table.
Panic pulses through me. Pushing against the human’s weight, I try to free myself from his body. He finally rolls off me and jumps to his feet. I suck in a deep breath to refill my lungs and sit up as well.
A collective gasp echoes across the tavern.
I whip my head up, expecting to find that the shifters have started killing the human men who confronted them. But instead, I find something worse.
They’re all staring at me.
Yanking a hand up, I reach for the hood of my cloak. Terror washes through me like ice when I don’t find it. It was knocked down when I hit the ground, and now, my head is fully visible.
And so are my ears.
“You,” the brown-haired shifter with orange eyes says, sounding both shocked and furious at the same time. His gaze is locked on me.
I swallow.
“Everybody out!” Blondie bellows, and swings his sword through the air until it’s pointed towards the door. “Now!”
For a moment, everything is dead silent and still.
My heart pounds in my chest where I still remain on the floor. And for one single second, I’m convinced that the humans in this tavern will come to my aid.
But they don’t.
Even with the rage I have built up inside them with my magic, they still decide that trying to fight four dragon shifters with swords while they themselves are unarmed, just to help a fae woman who they don’t even know, would be stupid.
Boots thud against the pale wooden floorboards as they all run out the door instead, leaving me alone with four dragon shifters. Firelight from the burning hearth glints against the swords they’re pointing at me.
I scramble to my feet.
“Don’t even think about it,” Silver Hair says when I flick a glance towards the still open door to the tavern.
And with one step to the side, he has put himself firmly between me and the only exit.
Fear spreads through my body like poison as I back across the room instead.
These people have spent a good portion of their night talking about how much they hate me and what they would do to me if I was their slave, and now they have me cornered and alone.
Whipping my head from side to side, I try to find a stray knife on one of the tables around me. But only mugs and spoons and bowls stare back at me uselessly.
The rage that I unwittingly increased in their chests earlier burns in their eyes as they advance on me.
Calling up my magic, I push at those pale red flames of anger in their chests and decrease them until they’re only tiny sparks.
But to my horror, all that does is to sharpen their expressions into something cold and ruthless instead. Without the burning anger making them uncoordinated and lost in blind rage, they instead start thinking tactically and spread out so that they are coming at me from all sides.
I drag in panicked breaths as I have to stop backing away when Silver Hair sprints across the room so that he is behind me instead. Blondie now blocks the route to the door while the two brown-haired ones advance from the other side. Cold calculation shines in their eyes now that I have removed their blinding rage.
Oh Goddess, I shouldn’t have decreased their anger. I shouldn’t have increased it in the first place. I should have seen that there were dragon shifters in here earlier. I should have left sooner. I should have done a million things differently. And now, I’m going to die.
Fear and terror crackles through my body like lightning. I need to use my magic or find a weapon or an escape. Or something. Anything. But I can’t think properly. I need to?—
The two brown-haired men lunge at me.
I leap back. My body hits the table behind me hard enough to make the chairs topple. Wooden clattering echoes between the pale walls as the chairs hit the ground while I throw myself to the side. A sword cuts through the air in the space where my chest used to be mere seconds ago.
Orange Eyes snarls as he yanks his sword back and spins towards me.
“My ancestors lived like animals because of you,” he growls as he advances on me. “They were forced to humiliate themselves and our entire family line because of your mind-control and your fucking dragon steel. And half of them died in the Liberation War.” His eyes gleam with malice as he stares me down while stalking towards me. “I should do the same to you.”
The back of my neck prickles.
On instinct, I duck and dive to the side right before Blondie can grab me from behind. His arms whoosh through the air where I used to stand while I roll to my feet two steps away. But Silver Hair was already moving.
The moment I leap to my feet again, he is already behind me. Panic pulses through my body when he grabs my arms from behind. Kicking blindly, I try to hit his shin or his crotch or anything I can reach. A hiss rips from his throat as my heel slams into something. But his grip on my arms only gets harder.
Reaching for my magic, I try to think of something that will help me. Some kind of emotion that will make them release me. But before I can even come up with something, pain spikes through my cheek and my head snaps to the side as Orange Eyes backhands me across the mouth.
The sudden hit makes my ears ring, and I lose the grip on my magic. Blinking furiously, I yank against the hands keeping my arms trapped while I kick blindly at anything within reach.
But then I stop suddenly when cold steel presses against the base of my throat.
When my vision clears, I find Orange Eyes standing in front of me with his sword at my throat. The other brown-haired man and the blond one have taken up position next to Silver Hair. Cold malice pulses from their entire souls as they stare me down.
Orange Eyes presses the tip of his sword harder against my skin. “This is going to hurt.”
Terror freezes my whole body. I can’t think. I can’t fight. I can’t flee. I can’t do anything other than stare at the sword before me while my heart is threatening to crack my ribs. He’s going to kill me.
A scream of agony splits the air. In the dead silence, it’s so shockingly loud that it makes my ears ring. For one second, I fear that the scream might have been mine.
But then the sword that Orange Eyes is holding starts moving.
It falls straight down to the floor.
And so does his hand.