Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
By the time Draven and I leave our room after a quick bath and a change of clothes, I’m exhausted, apprehensive, and really craving a boost of that wonderful pleasure from my magic. I used it a lot during the battle, which always just makes me want to use it even more.
I discreetly scan the area around us while Draven and I walk through the elegant hallways of Orion’s castle and towards the garden where we are all meeting.
There are a few guards stationed close by.
That incessant voice inside me is urging me to use my magic on one of them, just to get a little boost.
Squeezing my hand into a fist, I force myself to ignore that impulse.
If I don’t create emotions and feel that pleasure for a while, that terrible need to feel it again eventually gets less intense.
So I need to try to hold out. But it’s difficult not to crave that sense of comfort when my entire body is currently vibrating with tension.
My gaze slides to Draven while that storm of emotions continues twisting in my chest. “Are you… angry?”
He blinks, as if he was deep in thought, and turns to look at me. “Angry?”
“With me?”
His brow furrows in confusion. “Why would I be angry with you?”
“Because I used dragon steel on Severin.”
“So?”
“The Icehearts used to control you with dragon steel.”
“And we used dragon steel on Gremar that day when we captured Bane.” He holds my gaze with serious eyes. “You did the right thing.”
Relief washes through me. Drawing in a long breath, I unclench my hand again as the tightness in my chest eases.
I might not care about anyone else’s opinion of me anymore, but I do care what my friends think of me.
What Draven thinks of me. And since dragon steel is such a sensitive topic for him, I was worried that it might have made him feel disgusted by me.
“So you don’t think I crossed a line?” I ask.
“Crossed a line?” He frowns down at me, looking genuinely bewildered. Then he reaches out and grabs my arm, pulling me to a halt in the middle of the corridor. “Wait, were you actually worried that I would disapprove of what you did?”
Suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious, I glance around the corridor before meeting his intense gaze again. “Yes.”
“Oh, little rebel.” He heaves a deep sigh and then slides his hand around my throat.
“With me, there are no lines that can’t be crossed.
” Leaning down, he kisses me possessively and then smirks against my lips.
“I thought I already told you. If you want to be villains, let’s go be fucking villains. ”
A relieved laugh, full of gratitude and love, escapes my mouth. I kiss him back.
“I love you,” I whisper against his lips.
“I love you too, little rebel.” After stealing one more kiss from me, he pulls back and lets his hand drop from my throat.
Then he gives me a serious look as we once more start walking towards the door that will take us out into the garden.
“So you never have to worry about things like this with me. I love you. All of you. And I will never judge you. For anything.”
I almost tell him. Right then, when he is looking at me like that and saying things like this, I almost tell him about how badly I’m struggling with the side effects of my magic. But in the end, I can’t bring myself to do it.
I’ve seen how much it weighs on him that he always has to take on the heaviest responsibility for everything, and I want him to feel like he can lean on me. I want him to feel that I am shouldering some of the responsibility too, so that he doesn’t always have to take care of everything.
But if I tell him about my problems with my magic, he will feel that he needs to be there even more for me. And I don’t want that. I want to take care of him. He deserves someone who takes care of him too.
So instead of spilling my most embarrassing secret, I just give him a smile and silently vow to get my fucking issues under control myself.
Thick gray clouds still blanket the heavens when Draven and I walk through the side door and into the garden where we will be holding a meeting with all of our allies to determine our next steps.
Neatly trimmed bushes with dark blue roses frame one side of the beautiful garden while a massive jasmine bush in full bloom provides privacy from the other direction.
I sweep my gaze over the table filled with drinks and light food in the middle, impressed that Orion managed to arrange all this in such a comparatively short amount of time.
“I just need to talk to Galen a moment,” Draven says while leaning down to kiss the side of my neck.
A ripple of pleasure rolls through me when his lips brush the sensitive skin below my ear. He chuckles against my neck and then walks away towards where Galen is standing on the other side of the table.
Isera stands a few steps away as well, watching everyone with that customary cool expression on her face. As if she is back to normal. I’m pretty sure she’s putting up a front. But then again, so am I.
By the table, Orion checks something about the glasses, but he keeps casting glances towards the door, as if he is waiting for someone.
I drift over to where the Dryad Queen, Lavendera, Alistair, and Lyra are standing.
“We could have used your help today,” I comment to the Dryad Queen as I take up position next to her and turn so that I can watch the rest of the gathering as well.
She slides me a glance from the corner of her eye.
“If Lavendera dies, so does the Mother Dryad. And if the Mother Dryad dies, there will be no new dryads. Ever. My deal with you was so that I could move her out of harm’s way.
I intend to keep her there. And besides, I hear you managed just fine without us.
” The hint of a smile, sharp as a predator’s, ghosts across her lips for a moment as she adds, “At last, the thief is dead.”
Since Bane was the one who stole the Soul of Trees from the dryads, she hated Bane even more than she hates Jessina.
“Is he…?” I begin, but I can’t seem to finish speaking the question out loud.
Is he now trapped in that cold nothingness, barred from entering any of the afterlives, just like you told him he would be?
That predator’s smile on the Dryad Queen’s mouth grows wider.
The sight of it, and the answer it implies, sends a chill down my spine. I’m suddenly really, really glad that the dryads are on our side.
Orion jerks upright from the table. Blinking in surprise, I glance towards the side door to see who caused such a reaction from him.
Rin Tanaka, leader of the Orange Clan, walks out onto the grass. Her long black hair flutters down over her elegantly decorated dragon scale armor, and surprise flits across her beautiful face when Orion walks up to her.
“I would like to make a deal, if possible,” he says without preamble.
She raises her eyebrows in surprise. “A deal? For what?”
“For whatever you want.”
Her black eyes widen in shock. And to be honest, so do mine. I stare at Orion, my heart beating painfully in my chest when I realize where this conversation is heading. And what he is willing to give for it.
“In exchange for?” Rin asks, still looking at him with genuine surprise on her face.
Orion moves his hand up to his face and slowly lifts up the elegant black and silver eyepatch that hides his missing eye.
Understanding floods Rin’s face. “Ah.” Squinting slightly, she appears to study his empty eye socket for a few seconds. Then she asks, “Is the eye, or even just parts of it, preserved somewhere?”
“No. Jessina froze it with her ice magic and then ground it to dust underneath her heel.”
Rin actually flinches. Quickly wiping that expression from her features, she instead says, “I’m sorry.”
Orion says nothing. I can almost see the tension rolling off his stiff shoulders as he just looks back at her, waiting for her to answer his question.
“If you still had the eye, or parts of it, even if it was damaged, I could reattach it and make it whole again,” Rin at last replies.
“But I can’t create a completely new eye out of nothing when it has been separated from the body and destroyed entirely in this way.
” Her face softens, and I can tell that she is sincere. “I really am sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Orion says with a casual smile while lowering the eyepatch again. “I just figured I’d ask.”
It’s not fine. And he didn’t just ask. The Unseelie King offered Rin an open-ended deal for whatever she wanted.
Anything she wanted. Everyone knows that Orion Nightbane has never offered anyone a deal like that in his entire life.
It must have been incredibly hard for him to lay his pride at her feet like that and then to have his last hope shattered.
Before Rin can say anything else, the other three clan leaders walk through the door and out onto the grass.
Diana sweeps suspicious green eyes over everyone, and a hint of worry pulses through me when her gaze lingers slightly too long on me.
But then she just keeps walking over to the table and grabs a glass of wine.
A man in blue dragon scale armor follows her but picks up a mug of ale instead. I study him.
Over the years, I haven’t really seen him all that much since I’ve been trapped in the Seelie Court, but I still know exactly who he is.
Ejnare Amarok, the leader of the Blue Dragon Clan.
His dark brown hair has been pulled back in a bun, and his turquoise eyes are sharp and clear as he discreetly scans us all while he straightens from the table again.
The final clan leader who walks through the door is not discreet with his stares.
Severin Godblessed watches me through narrowed eyes as he takes up position on the other side of the garden.
His braided red hair and tassel are now impeccable again, and his flowing golden robes have been straightened to perfection.
It hides the fact that he is still wearing dragon steel.