Page 110 of Realm of Wind and Vines
“Good,” Isera replies. “Then let’s get this over with.”
“Selena and I will head to Ferver’s house so I can show her where it is,” Draven says. “Galen, you take Lyra and Alistair to scout out the taverns. I trust your judgement in finding the one that best suits our needs.”
Confidence seems to flow through Galen, making himstraighten his shoulders a little more, as he nods in acknowledgement.
Draven shifts his gaze to Orion and Isera. “And I trust you two not to kill each other while you handleyourmission.”
She just meets his eyes with stone cold seriousness. “I can’t promise that.”
A groan rips from Draven’s chest, and he rubs his forehead. “Azaroth’s fucking flame.”
“Don’t worry, you brooding beast,” Orion says, a devilish smile on his dangerously beautiful face as he flicks a look full of challenge back at Isera. “I can handle her.”
She just snickers. Still leaning against the wall with her arms crossed nonchalantly over her chest, she watches him with sharp eyes but thankfully doesn’t escalate the conflict.
“Alright,” Draven says. Drawing himself up to his full height, he looks from face to face while that effortless power that he wielded as the Commander of the Dread Legion rolls off his shoulders like pulsing black storm clouds. “This is it. We’ve played defense until now. Recruiting allies. Trying to make plans to stay one step ahead of them. Now, it’s time to strike. So I expect all of you to keep your head in the game.”
A thrumming sense of anticipation mixed with solemn seriousness sweeps over us all as we stand there gathered in the shadows on a darkened street far below the glittering Ice Palace. Warm night winds smelling of stone and ice roll down from the mountain. I draw in a deep breath.
Draven meets each of our eyes in turn.
“It’s time to take the fight to them.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Anticipation courses through me as I reach up to unhook the latch on the window. I have spent too many years allowing other people to have power over me. Now, I will finally start taking it back. Instead of worrying about what everyone will think of me, I will finally shove the real truth right in their faces. I shouldn’t be worried about them. They should be worried about me.
Pulling the window open on silent hinges, I rise up onto my toes and cast a quick look inside. A smile blows across my lips.
This tavern is perfect. Galen really did know what he was doing when he picked it.
It’s close enough to the Silver Clan’s barracks to be convenient, but not so close that it’s full of off duty soldiers. Instead, only three people are sitting at the scratched wooden tables inside. Three male dragon shifters who apparently have nothing better to do during the day than to chug flagons of ale, one of whom appears to own this less than reputable establishment.
After checking to make sure that they are all still focused on the mugs before them, I grab the frame and climb onto thewindowsill. Moving silently, I climb in through the window and drop down on the floor at the back of the tavern. We need to make sure that the rats have nowhere to run when we spring our trap.
I quietly close the window behind me again and then sneak across the stained floorboards and towards the open doorway that I’m assuming leads into a kitchen. Given the overpowering smell of spilled alcohol and sweat, and the distinct lack of food scents, I’m assuming that it’s empty, but I glance inside anyway. Just as I predicted, only dirty pots and pans meet me when I look inside the kitchen. Twisting back around, I shift my attention back to the owner and his two patrons.
The tavern keeper is sitting by the table closest to the bar. His thick brows are furrowed as he writes something in a ledger that barely fits between the three mugs of ale that take up most of the space. A short distance away, the two patrons are seated at separate tables. Both of them have their backs to me, but based on the way they’re sitting, they’re in a bad mood. The one on the left is gripping his mug as if he is trying to strangle it, and the other guy sets his down with a hard thump after taking a swig.
Anger crackles through me with shocking force. What could they possibly have to be angry about? They didn’t watch their parents get murdered right in front of them. They don’t have to live with the devastation of never knowing if their parents loved them. They haven’t been forced to stand helplessly in another city while someone whips their mate’s wings and then shackles them together. They’re members of the Silver Clan who rules more than half of this world. They have no idea what it means to be angry.
The door is yanked open.
From my place at the back of the tavern, I watch all three of them jerk upright at the sudden disturbance.
“Careful with the door,” the owner growls from his table. “I just had it replaced after…”
He trails off, and his gray eyes widen, as Draven Ryat prowls into his dingy tavern. All color drains from the tavern keeper’s face as Draven comes to a halt right inside the threshold. The door swings shut behind his muscular back with a thud.
For one single second, the entire tavern is frozen in time. I swear even the candles on the tables stop flickering for that one moment.
Then all three Silver Clan members scramble to their feet. Wood scrapes against wood as they leap out of their chairs so fast they almost knock them over. Mugs wobble on the rickety table as the guy to my right hits the table leg with his foot on the way up.
“Gorden, alert the Icehearts,” the tavern keeper snaps while whipping his head towards the blond patron on my left. Then he jerks his chin at the dark-haired guy who almost knocked his table over. “Kil, get the guards.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” I say.
Whirling around, they stare at me in shock where I’m standing behind them, leaning one shoulder nonchalantly against the wall. Then panic flashes across their faces, and they immediately spin around again so that they don’t have their backs to Draven. But since they can only face one direction, that of course leaves their backs unprotected from me. Pushing off from the wall, I start towards the three dragon shifters who are now keeping their eyes firmly on Draven.
