Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Worry twists inside my body like thorny vines as I follow the Unseelie King to the room where Draven and the other dragon shifters are sleeping after being healed by Haldia.
Orion said that they were wounded severely while buying Grey time to open the portal.
My own memories of that chaotic battle are all messed up due to Kander’s magic, so I don’t know how bad it was.
My heart beats hard in my chest as we draw closer to the door, and I have to flex my hand repeatedly to try to keep my mind on track.
That intense worry for Draven is mingling with the now overwhelming grief from watching my parents die several hundred times over the past twelve hours and the crushing regret that I will never know if they loved me.
Seeing them look at me with resentment right before they died several hundred times has turned that regret into poison that now seeps through my veins all the time.
As Orion and I walk along the pale stone corridor, I desperately cast my gaze around in search of someone that I can use my magic on.
But only rich blue carpets and beautiful paintings of northern lights stare back at me.
Flexing my hand again, I try to swallow down the desperate need for relief that using my magic would give me.
“I said, get out of my way!” Draven’s voice booms from the room at the end of the corridor. “I need to see her.”
“I know, but that healer girl also said to take it easy,” Alistair replies. “And you were dripping blood all over the damn floor when we carried you in here.”
My heart clenches.
“Sounds like they’re awake,” Orion comments as we close the final distance to the door. “Though I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me.” He slides me a look from the corner of his eye. “It took me longer to break you than I thought.”
“I’m healed now,” Draven growls back at Alistair. “Azaroth’s flame—”
“Ryat,” Isera interrupts. “She’s with Orion. He’s trying to help her.”
“The… extent of what I did to you stays between us,” Orion tells me in a low voice as we reach the door. “Agreed?”
I nod. “Agreed.”
“And you trust him?” Draven replies to Isera. “After he found out that you lied to him, he—”
Orion yanks the door open and saunters inside. “Well, speak of the handsome king and he shall appear.”
Everyone whirls towards the door. They’re all there. Galen is sitting up in a bed by the window. His blond hair is mussed and his violet eyes are filled with worry as he glances between Draven and the door. In the bed opposite his, Lyra is halfway to her feet, looking groggy but otherwise unharmed.
There are two more beds in the room. One is occupied by Diana Artemesia, the leader of the Purple Dragon Clan. The other is currently empty, the rumpled sheets hanging halfway to the floor as if they were thrown off in a hurry.
Isera is leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, and Alistair is standing in front of the final person close to that empty bed. My eyes go straight to that person.
Draven.
The agony of watching him be tortured and seeing him look at me with pure hatred in an endless loop for over twelve hours hits me all over again when I see him standing there. A choked sob rips from my chest, and I dart around Orion as I sprint into the room and crash straight into Draven’s chest.
He wraps his arms around me tightly, even as the force of my body makes him stagger back and sit down on the bed again. I curl up in his lap, pressing myself tighter into his embrace, and hug him so hard that any other person would have winced.
Draven just strokes my hair and murmurs, “You’re okay. You’re okay.”
My heart breaks all over again, and tears flow down my cheeks, making his soft black shirt wet. Pressing myself harder against him, I cry into his chest. Because I’m not okay. I’m really, really not okay. But I can’t tell him that.
While holding me protectively, Draven raises his head and demands, “What the fuck did you do to her? If you hurt her, I will fucking kill you.”
“Interesting threat from someone who has spent the past month or so doing nothing but hurt her,” Orion snipes back. “Have you forgotten all the cruel things you said and did to her these past few weeks?”
Draven flinches.
Snapping my head up, I lock hard eyes on Orion.
“Don’t you dare imply that he did any of that willingly.
My magic forcibly changed his entire personality.
Can you even imagine what it was like for him?
He was forced to be unbelievably cruel to his own fated mate while deep down his soul was screaming in pain at what he was doing, but he also couldn’t stop because my magic was forcing him to continue doing it even though it was tearing him apart from the inside.
” My eyes are serious as I hold Orion’s gaze.
“It was as awful for him as it was for me.”
Orion opens his mouth, but he seems to understand, because he just slowly closes it again and tilts his head in a small nod of acknowledgement.
“And you,” I continue, looking up at Draven. “Please don’t threaten Orion. All he did was to help me.”
Hesitation blows across Draven’s features, and he lowers his voice as he asks, “Then why are you crying?”
“I was just so worried about you.” Resting my cheek against his chest, I listen to the steady beat of his heart while hating myself for lying to him.
But I can’t tell him the true extent of what Orion did to me.
For all of our sakes. “Orion said that you got seriously hurt. And I was just so worried.”
Some of the tension goes out of Draven’s shoulders, and he strokes my hair again while bending down to kiss the top of my head. “I’m okay. I promise.”
I can’t stop another small sob from escaping my lips.
Keeping my eyes closed, I just remain like that, curled up on Draven’s lap with his strong arms around me and his calming scent of night mist and embers filling my lungs with every breath.
I don’t even care that there are seven other people in this room right now, watching me break down and cry like this.
When he holds me like this, it makes me feel as if everything is going to be okay.
And I really need to feel that right now.
“She’s back to normal?” Isera asks from the other side of the room. “You were able to break von Graf’s memory magic with your own?”
“I did indeed. As promised,” Orion replies, sounding smug. “After all, I am very good at what I do.”
“So you can do that to us too, then?” Alistair asks. “If the same thing happens to us?”
There is a slight pause. I just keep my arms around Draven, breathing him in, while I try to force my heart to stop pounding and my mind to clear.
“No,” Orion admits slowly. “Selena is… uniquely suited for the kind of technique I used. I would not be able to replicate it on the rest of you.”
Alistair curses softly under his breath.
Silence descends on the room. I don’t want to leave Draven’s embrace, because then the real world will rush back in. And so will the pain and regret and the terrible, terrible craving for magic. But I force myself to pull my arms back and climb off his lap.
He reluctantly lets me go. However, before I can take a step back, he cups my cheeks and gives me an achingly gentle kiss.
“Are you okay?” he whispers against my lips, so softly that only I can hear.
With my forehead still resting on his, I nod. Because I don’t trust myself to speak right now. He would hear the lies in my voice.
“We still need to talk about what happened while I had that flame of hatred in my chest,” he whispers, and I can hear the pain in his voice at the reminder of what he did.
“I know,” I breathe back. “And we will. When all this is over.”
“So, what now?” Diana asks into the oppressive silence.
Pulling back from Draven, I straighten fully on the floor.
His fingers trail down my arm as I take a step back.
Running my gaze up and down his body, I quickly scan him for injuries.
When I first barreled through the door, I was just so focused on holding him that I barely took in his appearance. I do now.
Relief washes through me when I find no visible injuries.
He’s wearing a black shirt and a pair of soft dark pants rather than his armor, and his black hair is slightly messy.
Though that might be more my fault than anything else.
No traces of any wounds. Whatever Haldia did to heal him, she did well.
While shoving down the pain and regret and terrible cravings that still wreak havoc inside me, I force a smile to my lips. Then I turn to look at the rest of the room so that Draven won’t be able to see through my facade.
My eyebrows shoot up as I sweep my gaze through the rest of the room. “Where is Lavendera?”
“Not here,” Isera replies from where she is still leaning against the wall. As always, there is an unreadable expression on her face, but her gaze keeps shifting to Orion every few seconds. “The Dryad Queen took her back to their realm.”
“What? But they promised that they would help!”
“She said they’re coming back,” Alistair interjects with a shrug. “And we couldn’t exactly stop her. Since, you know, she’s a tree and all that.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Diana repeats. Suspicion shines in her green eyes as she shifts her gaze from face to face before finally settling on Draven.
“I picked a side in this war by helping you fight the Silver Clan back there, Shadow of Death. And they have Kander under their thumb now.” With her eyes still on Draven, she nods towards Orion.
“And the Unseelie King here just said that he won’t be able to break us out of it if we’re hit by that memory magic.
So, how do we stop the Icehearts from forcing Kander to wipe our memories? ”
“We find the Gold Clan,” I reply before Draven can even open his mouth.