Page 2 of Court of Lies and Deceit

“The ice flames that the Silver Clan possesses can freeze a person completely,” another voice replies from the same direction that Galen’s voice came from. It’s Lyra, the usually so cheerful soldier from the Black Dragon Clan. Though right now, her voice is grim. “Basically turning the whole body into ice.”

Memories flash before my eyes of the battle that I witnessed on the mountainside outside the Ice Palace. Images of how Bane and Jessina’s ice flames encased the dragons from the Purple Clan, and how their bodies fell through the sky and shattered like glass on the stones below.

Dread washes through me. I try to swallow it down, but everything in my mouth tastes of blood and iron.

“And that shard made of those ice flames penetrated her body,” the stranger picks up. “Which means that their magic is already inside her.” His green eyes are filled with sympathy as he glances down at me. “It’s going to turn her body into ice from the inside.” He looks up at the others around the room. “It’s slower than being fully encased by ice flames, which means instant death, but no less certain.”

I suddenly can’t breathe. I feel like someone just punched me in the gut and then ripped my lungs out.

That cold and unreadable expression remains on Isera’s features as she drags her gaze up to the stranger. “She’s going to die?”

“Yes.”

A sob is wrenched from deep within my soul.

The room erupts into chaos.

Draven whips around and launches himself at Isera. Grabbing her by the collar of her silver tunic, he slams her up against the bookshelves so hard that the glass bottles rattle behind her.

“Do something!” he growls in her face. “You have ice magic too.”

“I can’t,” she replies.

His fist tightens in her shirt. “I was going to leave you. I was going to get Selena and my clan the hell out of there, and I was going to leave you collared and trapped inside that fucking Ice Palace.” He stabs his free hand in my direction. “Butsheforced my hand. She forced me to buy her time that we really didn’t have, just so that she could get the two of you out. So that she could save you.” A muscle flickers in his jaw as he grinds out, “You owe her.”

That unreadable mask on Isera’s face slips for a second. Genuine shock pulses across Isera’s and Alistair’s features as both of them flick a glance at me.

I try to tell them to stop fighting, but I only manage to cough more blood onto the table.

“Don’t you think I would help her if I could?” Isera snaps as she once more locks eyes with Draven. Now that her impassive mask has shattered, that world-ending fury that has filled her eyes these last few weeks has returned to her face. “If it was my ice, I could’ve just flicked my wrist and made it disappear. But it’s notmyice. It’s theirs. Which means that I can’t just make it disappear. All I can do is to move it.”

“Then move it! Move it out of her body!”

Isera’s eyes begin to glow as she channels her magic and raises a hand.

But before she can do anything, the stranger screams, “Don’t!”

Draven releases Isera’s collar and whirls around to face him. The stranger swallows and takes a half step back when Draven’s burning eyes lock on him.

Clearing his throat, he quickly elaborates. “Moving it won’t remove it. I’ve already told you. The magic is already inside her body, which means it will continue to spread. So if you move the ice, all it will do is to make it spread faster.”

Isera’s eyes stop glowing as she immediately cuts off the flow of her magic.

For a few moments, the room is eerily silent. The stunned quiet is so damning that it vibrates between the walls like death knells.

“Then what do we do?” Alistair at last asks, shattering the tense silence. His eyes are surprisingly desperate as he glances between me and the stranger. “There must be something you can do.”

“I’m just a doctor,” he replies with a helpless shrug. “For this, you need a healer. Someone with actual healing magic. Then they could both fix her spine and remove the ice.”

Determination flashes across Draven’s face. “Rin. Rin will do it.”

“Rin Tanaka hates you,” Galen points out softly.

“Everyonehates me,” Draven growls back. “But they do as I say anyway.”

The doctor scrambles back as Draven suddenly starts towards me. Alistair lurches into motion as well, and the scuff of boots behind my back tells me that Galen and Lyra are moving too.

“Let’s go,” Draven orders with a jerk of his chin. “We’re getting out of this shithole village right now and?—”

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