Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Trees shoot up from the ground.
Jessina and half of her army roar in panic as vines and branches and entire trees explode up from the forest we’ve been pushing them towards all this time.
Tilting my head back, I bellow out a cry of relief.
Sheer terror flashes across Jessina’s face as the trees and vines twist like snakes around her legs and wings, trapping her in the air.
The entire forest below us thrums with a feral hiss as the might of the entire dryad realm ensnares our enemies.
Dragons scream and breathe fire desperately as the vines tighten around them, strangling their throats and trapping their wings.
In the chaos, the cloud of birds surges forward, churning furiously around Jessina.
Then a magical hawk shoots out of the fray, carrying a small object shaped like an hourglass.
“It worked!” I scream into Draven’s mind.
Jessina, distracted by the mindless barrage of birds, didn’t notice that Fenriel sent his highly intelligent hawk into the chaos to steal the shield device that was stuck to one of her spikes. It must have taken all of Talon’s strength and cunning to finally get it free.
He lets out a victorious screech as he swoops back towards Fenriel.
Jessina roars in utter panic and terror. Ice flames shoot through the air, heading straight for Talon. Fenriel screams.
But right before the hawk is engulfed, Diana sends her entire cloud of birds straight in front of the flames instead. A cry of agony rips from her throat as her birds are engulfed by the ice flames. But their sacrifice buys Talon enough time to shoot through the air and out of the way.
Draven speeds forward.
Jessina thrashes furiously, trapped by the dryads and exposed without her shield. Pure terror shines in her eyes for a second before fury and insanity take over. She roars.
And black smoke explodes through the air.
Flying right into it, Draven shoots towards her while slamming a blast of wind magic into the smoke from the side. Leaves tremble below us as the winds sweep through the landscape, clearing the sky.
I whip my head from side to side, looking for Jessina.
Alarm cracks through my chest as I spot her.
By transforming into her half-shift form, she has managed to free herself from the dryads.
Her silver wings flap hard on either side of her, and her glittering silver dress flutters behind her as she flies away from the forest. Branches and vines shoot up after her as the dryads try to catch her again.
But she slashes her arms through the air, sending sheets of ice cutting through them before they can reach her.
The dryads in the woods hiss in pain and fury.
“Orion!” I scream while Draven surges forward, heading straight for Jessina.
Galen swerves in the air, changing direction and flying after Draven while Orion clings to his spikes. Exhaustion rolls off every inch of Orion’s body, but his eye glows as he throws his magic towards Jessina.
She screams and almost crashes into a red dragon when her vision disappears and is replaced by nightmares. Flying jerkily through the air, she bellows, “The Unseelie King! Kill the Unseelie King!”
The parts of her army that aren’t being strangled by the terrible might of the dryads tear themselves away from their battles and shoot towards Galen.
Ice flames roar towards him from every direction.
Galen jerks back, but the attacks are coming from all sides.
Whirling around, Draven bellows in panic as his best friend is about to be consumed by ice flames.
Atop Galen’s back, Orion keeps his chin raised, the crown glinting on his head as the attacks reach them.
Shields of ice and torrents of fire blast out right in front of Galen and Orion as Lyra and another black dragon crash into their ranks.
“Touch him and I will fucking kill you!” Isera bellows across the battlefield.
“Take him out!” Jessina screams.
Draven whirls back towards her, but the horde of dragons swarms Galen and the others. Ice flames and dragon fire clash as they slam into each other.
Jessina suddenly speeds away, heading deeper into the battlefield.
Orion must have been forced to release his magic.
Or he ran out of energy. I cast a panicked look back, finding Isera and Alistair practically slumped over their dragons’ backs.
We’re all running on fumes now. And Jessina is getting farther ahead.
With a bellowing roar, Draven tries to clear the sky as he chases after Jessina. But in her half-shift form, she is able to slip effortlessly through the mass of battling dragons while Draven’s massive form is blocked by our two fighting armies.
“You need to shift too!” I yell into his mind.
“If I shift, you will fall off my back,” he growls.
“It’s worth the risk! You need to catch her before she can slip away.
If we lose her now, we will never get this kind of chance again.
She’s panicked and scared and without her shield.
We need to kill her now. So transform into your half-shift form and chase her.
I’ll try to grab a different dragon on the way down. ”
“If you think I’m going to risk your life in that way, you don’t know me at all. I would rather lose this war than lose you.”
I snarl in frustration and shove my magic towards Jessina. But the violet flame of pain I’m aiming for isn’t there. And if I target her fear or panic, it will just make her flee faster.
Desperation surges through me. I need another minute before my energy has recovered enough for me to create an emotion out of nothing. But we don’t have a fucking minute. Jessina is getting farther and farther away with every second.
Black storm clouds explode around us as Draven throws them across the battlefield, enveloping friend and foe alike. He roars, and our allies speed out of the way as he hurtles towards Jessina. But the red and silver and white dragons just surge forward.
“Kill him!” Jessina screams as she zigzags between their bodies. “All of you, kill Draven Ryat!”
Blinding light explodes through the sky as the leader of the White Clan sends his magic pulsing through Draven’s storm clouds. Draven growls and draws them tighter around us, but I can tell that he’s squinting as he speeds after Jessina.
Waves of water crash into the enemies on our left as Ejnare attacks the leader of the White Clan. The light around us dims enough for me to blink my vision back into focus.
Panic crackles through my spine at what I find.
Jessina has turned in the air and is trying to speed past underneath us while all the rest of her soldiers barrel straight for Draven.
Ice flames shoot towards him. He breathes fire back at them in a desperate attempt to defend himself while throwing storm winds to shove the others’ ice attacks off course.
A glittering silver dress flashes below.
The mass of dragons crashes into Draven.
And it’s with terrifying clarity that I realize that we are going to lose her.
Claws rip at Draven’s sides. Pain spikes through my ribs as well when the agony is mirrored by the union bond.
Draven roars, trying to rip himself free from the cluster of pale dragons that try to trap him from all sides.
Jessina flies past underneath him.
I make a split-second decision and leap up onto Draven’s spine.
This is it. Draven won’t be able to get himself free in time.
Jessina will disappear into the throng and then we will be right back where we started.
And everyone will have died for nothing.
Trevor. Kevlin. Grey. My parents. Orion will have lost his eye for nothing.
Isera will have suffered for nothing. Jessina will return to Frostfell and kill all the humans who worked so hard to reclaim their city.
Both the Unseelie Court and the Seelie Court will remain trapped inside the wards, too afraid to go outside.
We will all have suffered for nothing. If we lose Jessina now, she will be able to rally her forces and then the war will just start all over again. I can’t let it happen. This ends. Now.
“What are you doing?” Draven screams into my mind as I sprint down his spine and towards his tail.
Dragons slash and snap at him from all sides, and it’s all he can do to defend himself.
I yank out my dagger as I rush the final distance out onto his tail.
“Selena!” Draven screams, his voice breaking with fear and panic.
“I’m sorry,” I reply.
Then I close the union bond and leap off his body.
Winds rush in my ears as I free-fall through the sky.
Above me, Draven bellows in panic. But the mass of dragons yanks and tears at him from all sides, and he can’t get free of them.
Silver wings and a glittering silver dress flutter below me as I plummet downwards.
Raising my dagger, I grip it tightly and brace for impact.
Jessina only has time to jerk her head up and stare at me in shock and fear.
Then I slash my dagger right through her gleaming silver wings.
She screams in agony as I rip through the thin membrane of her wings before my body slams right into hers. Throwing my arms out, I wrap them around her torso, clinging to her thrashing body as both of us plummet towards the ground far below.
Blood runs down from the massive tears in her wings, and she flaps them furiously. But with the holes, they no longer bear her weight. I summon my magic and slam it right into that huge flame of pain in her chest before she can concentrate enough to shift into a dragon or summon her own magic.
A cry of pure agony tears from her lungs as I flare the violet flame into a wildfire.
She shoves at me with furious rage and panic while we tumble around and around as we fall through the sky. But I cling hard to her body, keeping a firm hold on her while I try to maneuver my dagger into place.
“Get off me!” Jessina snarls at me, pain and fury crackling in her voice. “I will fucking kill you for what you did to my mate!” Insanity flashes like lightning in her pale gray eyes as we tumble through the sky. “Where is he? What did you do with his body?”
“I buried his body face down in a grave of worms!” I scream back at her and flare the pain in her chest.
Fear pulses across her face at my words even as she screams from my magic.
Releasing the grip on her pain, I slam it into that bone white flame of fear instead and flare that wide. She thrashes hard, trying to break my grip. Winds rip at my hair and clothes as we flip over and over in the air.
“Liar!” Jessina screams back at me. “You can’t touch him! You are slaves! You are all slaves! You can’t kill me. You can’t kill him—”
“We already did!” Yanking my knife up, I ram it towards her throat.
She throws her arm up, smacking her forearm into mine and stopping the blade before it can reach her. I growl and push it towards her, but we keep rolling over and over through the air, which removes my leverage time and again.
“We killed Bane and now I am going to kill you!” I bellow, trying to force the blade down into her chest.
Her wings flutter uselessly on either side of her, blood staining the air around us as we fall.
The terrible pain from her shredded wings makes her eyes slide in and out of focus and prevents her from concentrating enough to summon her own magic.
So instead, she yanks her other arm up and drives her fist into the side of my ribs.
Air explodes from my lungs, and I almost lose the grip on my dagger.
“I am over six thousand years old!” she snarls back at me, slamming her fist into my side over and over again. “I am immortal. I am an empress. I rule this entire world. You cannot kill me!”
I yank up my dagger and slam it down again.
Her forearm sinks lower, but not low enough for the blade to hit home.
She beats the side of my ribs furiously.
I release the grip on her fear and instead slam it into the violet flame of pain.
A cry tears from her throat, and she stops hammering my ribs as pain flares through her every nerve.
I drive the knife farther towards her chest
“You might be an immortal empress,” I growl into her face. “But you made a mistake. You killed my parents. And now, I am going to destroy everything you have ever touched.”
Winds rip through my hair as I throw my entire body weight to the side, straightening us out and stopping our constant rolling so that I am instead straddling her hips. And now that the world has stopped spinning, I can see how close the ground is.
Above us, Draven roars.
A shadow of death shoots down through the sky heading straight for me.
The ground rushes up towards us.
Summoning every last smidgen of magic I have left, I create a black flame of despair and slam it right into Jessina’s chest.
She cries as hopelessness and despair flood her entire soul.
A vicious snarl twists my mouth. Because this is the final thing I want her to feel before she leaves this world.
All-consuming, endless despair. I increase it until it’s all she feels.
Until there is nothing left inside me to give.
And like a pure fucking villain, I drink in the sight of the hope dying in her eyes as she drowns in a black sea of despair.
The arm blocking mine wavers as tears pour from her eyes.
I yank up my hand.
And slam my dagger right into Jessina’s heart.
We crash into the ground.