Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Chaos erupts across the garden. Lavendera, who has been disassociating this entire time, snaps out of her stupor and whirls towards the Dryad Queen at the same time as I lurch forward and Orion sprints through the side door.
“We need to get them out!” Lavendera yells. Then her eyes flash in and out of focus several times as the Mother Dryad inside her head no doubt panics as well, making Lavendera growl, “Stop screaming! I already know.”
Skidding to a halt in front of the Dryad Queen, I begin saying, “Tell them to—”
She throws her head back and spreads her arms wide again. That sharp hissing sound echoes across the garden as she opens her mouth while her hair streams out around her head and her dress grows into the ground again.
My heart jerks from another burst of fear at the sense of primal power that pulses through the air.
“Get out, get out, get out!” Lavendera is screaming next to me.
I have no idea if she’s yelling at the Mother Dryad or if it’s the Mother Dryad who is trying to yell that to her own people, because her eyes keep flashing in and out of focus while she whips her head from side to side.
“What can we do?” Rin calls from somewhere behind me. “Can we heal them?”
“We need to get them out!” Lavendera yells again.
“How close is she?” Diana blurts out.
Trying to block out all the chaos and stress around me, I focus on the Dryad Queen, who is still communicating with the rest of the dryads through their hive mind. I have no idea if she can hear me while she’s in that state, but I speak anyway.
“Tell them to run for the Seelie Court,” I say, my pulse thrumming in my ears. “I know all the passphrases so that they can get through the wards.”
That sharp hissing continues echoing through the air. I have no idea if she heard me.
“No, no, no, no,” Lavendera is screaming, still whipping her head from side to side.
“Tell them!” I cry in panic, trying to make my voice carry over that loud hissing and the chaos spreading out around me. “If they can just make it to the wards, they’ll be safe inside the—”
A shrieking scream cuts through the air. It’s so violent and so raw and primal that I jerk back in utter terror. Fear crawls inside my chest like spiders until I feel like I’m going to die from the emotion alone.
Draven is there immediately. Wrapping one arm around me, he yanks me back and twists his body in front of me as if to shield me from a threat that neither of us can actually see.
My heart pounds like a battle drum and my head rings as that shrieking scream splits the air. It sounds like thousands of voices screaming at the same time. It’s exactly like… Like what I heard when I tried to use my magic on Lavendera.
“She’s here!” the Dryad Queen screams in that voice that echoes of thousands of other voices. It’s raw and primal and full of bloodcurdling rage and fear. It sounds as if the earth itself is screaming. “It’s being destroyed! We are being—”
A portal shoots up from the ground in the middle of the garden.
Draven shoves me out of the way, putting himself fully between it and me while yanking out the massive sword strapped down his spine. Tension pulses around him like a lightning storm.
Lavendera screams.
The Dryad Queen gasps in a massive sharp breath.
Then dryads are pouring into the garden through the portal.
Everyone scrambles back in panic as a horde of dryads stampedes across the grass, filling the entire garden with rippling vines and fluttering leaves.
Two of them crash right into the table filled with refreshments, knocking it over.
Wine glasses and delicate plates of food crash down on the grass as it tips over.
Fruit rolls across the ground and wine splashes over the grass, staining it red.
Draven lowers his sword but keeps me behind him so that I won’t get trampled in the chaos.
Behind the mass of dryads, on the other side of the portal, the sounds of rushing and crackling ice flames echo through the air. It’s followed by a furious roar from a massive dragon.
The Dryad Queen snaps her head back down, her hair falling down too as it stops streaming around her head.
Utter shock and disbelief pulse across her ancient face as she stares at the dryads rushing into the garden.
Then relief, so intense that I actually gasp as well, crash across her features, and she staggers two steps backwards.
Beside her, Lavendera’s eyes return fully into focus. Pressing a hand to her chest, she drags in deep breaths while blinking furiously.
“RUN!” a voice bellows from the other side of the portal.
Ice spreads through my body when I recognize that voice.
Orion.
Across the grass and the stampeding dryads, Isera whips her head from side to side, panic suddenly crackling over her features. “Orion? Where is Orion?”
Through the mass of vines and leaves and branches that the dryads are made of, I can barely see the portal.
Let alone what is happening on the other side of it.
Isera is trying to push her way through the herd of dryads, but there are so many of them and they’re moving so quickly that none of us can get through.
Rising up on my toes, I try to catch a glimpse of what is happening on the other side of the portal.
My heart leaps into my throat when I spot Orion and Grey. Through the now thinning stream of rushing dryads on the other side of the portal, their homeland with the massive trees becomes visible.
Orion and Grey are sprinting across the ground from separate directions, as if they split up to gather the dryads from both sides of the area.
Ice flames crash into the ground behind them, swallowing one of the dryads’ tree homes.
The final stragglers that Grey and Orion are herding towards the portal scream in panic as a massive silver dragon flashes past in the sky right above the trees.
Jessina’s tail smacks into the now frozen tree homes. They burst apart.
“ORION!” Isera screams, her throat raw, as chunks of ice shoot through the air.
Summoning her magic, she tries to get it through the portal to protect him and Grey, but the panicking dryads are in the way.
A shard of ice flames smacks into Orion’s shoulder from behind. He gasps, pain pulsing across his face as the shard buries itself in his shoulder with such force that he stumbles forward.
Behind them, Jessina roars.
“Get out of the way!” Isera screams, still trying to shove the mass of dryads aside.
“Alistair!” Lyra yells from the other side of the garden.
“Move!” Alistair bellows as well.
But there are too many dryads, and the garden is too small for them to quickly move out of the way.
Orion stumbles upright again as he and Grey continue sprinting towards the portal.
The final few dryads rush through, almost crashing into their friends in the now packed garden.
Wind booms down as Jessina swerves in the air and then flies down behind Orion and Grey right as they reach each other. Dread washes over their faces as Jessina lets out a bellowing roar and then opens her mouth.
“Orion!” Isera screams again, so loudly that her voice almost cracks.
“MOVE!” Alistair bellows as he summons his fire magic.
The dryads scream, pushing hard against each other to get out of the way.
A pale shimmering starts at the back of Jessina’s throat.
Orion and Grey hurtle towards the portal.
The dryads shove each other to the side.
Jessina releases her flames.
Ice fire shoots towards Grey and Orion in a massive torrent. On the other side of the garden, Isera screams. The dryads throw themselves down on the ground. Grey shoves Orion ahead of himself.
A rushing, crackling, clinking sound rips through the air as Jessina’s ice flames crash over Grey right as Orion hits the ground face-first on the other side of the portal.
Ice fire streams over Grey from behind, encasing his body all the way to his neck, and rushes towards the still open portal.
Alistair slams a torrent of fire straight into the ice flames right as they reach the portal. The dryads scream, pressing themselves down harder against the ground to stay out of harm’s way. Orion, a shard still sticking out of his shoulder, shoves himself to his knees and twists around.
Fire pours into the ice flames, melting them before they can stream in through the portal. Alistair grits his teeth, trying to force his fire all the way to Grey, who is still stuck in the ice three steps away from the safety of the portal.
Dread flashes across Orion’s face as he whirls around to see it.
“Grey!” he screams.
Jessina continues breathing ice flames that keep undoing all the progress that Alistair is making with his fire.
While still building up the ice that Alistair melts, she speeds towards the open portal.
Alistair pours more flames through it, desperately melting the ice at a furious pace. But not fast enough.
Still encased fully in ice, Grey meets Orion’s gaze through the portal. Tears line his turquoise and yellow eyes, but there is a soft smile on his lips as he holds Orion’s gaze.
“It’s been a pleasure, my king,” he says.
“Grey,” Orion chokes out.
A massive silver dragon slams down right onto the thick ice where Grey is trapped.
The ice, and Grey’s body that is encased in it, shatters like a smashed mirror underneath the massive weight of Jessina’s body.
The portal disappears. But it doesn’t collapse into the ground like it usually does. It vanishes. From one moment to the next, it simply ceases to exist.
Gone.
Just like the soul of the person who used to wield its magic.