Page 76 of Court of Lies and Deceit

Hellfire burns in his eyes as he locks them on me. “You and I are going to have words later.”

About the fact that I shoved him through the spinning wall and then locked it behind him, no doubt. But we have more pressing problems.

Breaking his murderous stare, I sweep my gaze over all of my companions. “I was forced to hand over our spare key to the Red Faction, so they now have both keys.”

“And the Green Faction didn’t have any key at all,” Galen says. “Which means that the White Faction probably has both keys too.”

“Shit.” I ram my dagger back in its sheath and rake both hands through my hair in frustration. “We need to be the first to reach the door.” My gaze flits to Draven for a second. “Otherwise, we’ll lose the opportunity to steal back the dragon steel.”

“Then stop yapping and let’s go,” Isera interrupts. “I’ll scout the way from atop the wall. That way, we’ll know exactly which corridors lead straight to the door.”

“That way, everyone will also see you and attack you,” I challenge, staring at her in bewilderment. “You’ll be completely open for attacks in every direction.”

“I have ice magic.” She forms a staircase made of ice leading up to the wall. “It’s the best defensive magic out of all of us.”

Before we can get another word out, she darts up the ice steps and straightens atop the stone wall. Turning, she scans the arena before her. The crowd lets out a whoop.

“Straight ahead,” she calls down at us. “Let’s go.”

She doesn’t wait for us to reply. Instead, she simply starts jogging forward on top of the wall. We exchange a quick glance and then scramble to follow her.

My heart pounds as we run through the corridors and rooms, sprinting as fast as we can towards the center of the arena.

Fire roars through the air.

Instinctively, I duck. But the flames just stream past above me. I suck in a sharp breath as they shoot straight for Isera. Still running atop the wall on our left, she yanks up a thick sheet of ice.

The fire slams into it, creating a hissing sound as the flames hit the cold ice, and washes out into the air around Isera instead of hitting her. With a flourish, she shifts the sheet of ice, sendingthe remaining fire shooting up into the sky instead. The crowd cheers in excitement.

“Take the right,” she calls down at us as we reach another room.

All across the floor of the room is a sea of tables and paintings in thick wooden frames, and a piano, of all things. We leap and weave through the mess, hurrying towards the opening on the right.

Lightning crackles through the air above.

Isera dives forward, rolling across the top of the wall, to evade it. Leaping to her feet, she twists and leans to avoid another bolt of lightning. A stream of ice shoots through the air as she fires back at the person who shot the lightning. The crowd screams in anticipation.

I shove a cluster of paintings aside and then dart through the opening on the right.

Atop the wall, attacks start pelting Isera from two different directions, evidence that both the Red and the White Faction are now within range.

My heart slams against my ribs as we sprint down the next corridor. I cast panicked glances up at Isera, worry crackling through my veins like lightning. But she just dances out of the way of the attacks, leaping and twirling and raising spiked shields of ice. It’s effortless, graceful, and so fucking incredible to watch that I almost stumble when I realize what she’s actually doing.

She’s entertaining the crowd.

Roars and cheers thrum inside the massive arena as the audience hangs on to Isera’s every move, watching her incredible display of both magical and physical abilities.

I gape up at her as we dart down the next corridor.

Out of all the people who I thought would take Jocasta’s words to heart and focus on entertaining the crowd,Iseramost certainly wasn’t one of them. She never lets anyone bully her into doing something she doesn’t want to. And performing before a crowd is definitely not something that she would ever agree to do willingly. So it stuns me to see her sacrifice her pride in order to help us win like this.

“Hurry!” she suddenly yells down at us. “The White Faction is almost at the door!”

Alarm shoots up my spine.

“Fuck,” she snaps. “The Red Faction is coming too!”

We pick up speed, running with everything we have towards the next opening up ahead. My breath rasps through my throat, and Alistair looks like he’s about to pass out after the long run. His eyes glide in and out of focus as we draw closer to the opening.

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