Page 79 of Realm of Wind and Vines
Or so I thought.
It only takes three seconds for that roaring fury inside me to come crashing back.
The meeting place that Jessina specified is the ballroom in the Golden Palace where we had the commencement ball during the Atonement Trials. However, all the side tables, white tablecloths, gleaming silver decorations, pitchers, and wine glasses have been removed. Now, only the glittering golden chandeliers in the high ceiling remain, making the large room feel cavernous.
But that is not what makes my vision flash red due to undiluted rage. It’s what meets me when I come to a halt on the floor a few steps from the portal.
Jessina Iceheart is standing there in the same silver-sparkling dress that she wore when she and Bane ambushed us in this castle yesterday. Her white hair has been pulled back from herface in a simple braid this time, and the hem of her dress is slightly muddy. No doubt from her unglamorous visit to Hunter’s Marsh.
Next to her is Lavendera, who is currently staring at the wall across the room with that strange blank look she gets on her face when she is disassociating from the world.
To their left and right, ten of the Icehearts’ elite soldiers are spread out.
But my gaze goes straight to the man kneeling in front of Jessina.
Draven.
He is still wearing his black dragon scale armor, but his face is bloody and his eyes are glassy with pain. His hands have been shackled in front of him. And his wings…
Bile crawls up my throat.
Not only has she whipped his wings again. She has alsochainedthem together. Thick iron manacles encircle the bones that frame the top of his wings. They have simply been locked right through his wings in those places, tearing the thin membrane that is supposed to be there. A short chain runs from one manacle to the other, trapping his wings together behind him and preventing him from spreading them out to his sides.
The black rage and dark hatred surge up inside me like tidal waves as I stare at him.
That lone speck of light that remains inside my soul flickers precariously.
I can barely hear anything over the roaring in my ears.
I’m going to kill her for this.
I’m going to kill them all for this.
“What have you done?” Galen demands in a horrified voice as he comes to a halt on the floor next to me.
We have already planned exactly how we are going to stand so that we will be able to get Draven out of here as quickly as possible regardless of what the trap might be.
Across the polished floor, Jessina flashes us a vicious smile. “I’ve done far less to him than a traitor of his caliber deserves. I would’ve done much worse,” her pale gray eyes slide to me, and her expression sharpens like a blade, “if you hadn’t started playing your little game of tit for tat.”
I just stare back at her, my head still roaring with fury, while suddenly wishing that Isera had been even more brutal while she was already at it.
Lyra clenches her fist and grits her teeth where she is standing a little behind and to the left of Galen. Orion remains closest to the portal, while Alistair is closer to the front. Isera hauls Bane with her through the portal and shoves the drugged-up emperor down on his knees between me and her. Galen, who is standing a little ahead of us, remains as a barrier between Bane and Jessina, in case she is going to try something very direct.
Fury pulses across Jessina’s face when she sees the blood on her mate’s body.
“When we win this war, I’m going to make you all watch as I torture the person you love most until they’re begging for death,” she promises, threats dripping from her voice like acid.
Isera holds her stare with cold eyes. “You already have.”
That vicious smile on Jessina’s lips widens. But all she says is, “Let’s trade, then.”
“One person leads the hostage to the middle of the room,” Galen begins. “They trade and then walk back to their side.”
“Fine.” Jessina flicks her wrist and then looks to Lavendera. “Remove the dragon steel from his wrist.”
My gaze darts down to Draven’s shackled wrists. But because the manacles are in the way, I can’t see anything.
Lavendera just stands there for another second, staring unseeing at the wall across the room. Then she blinks hard and at last returns to the world around her. Moving gracefully across the floor, she crouches down in front of Draven and pushes themanacles up higher. It reveals the thin bracelet of dragon steel that Alistair bent with his fire magic. However, it looks to have been cut on one side so that it could be wedged onto Draven’s wrist.
