Page 80 of Realm of Wind and Vines
With efficient moves, Lavendera pries it from his wrist and then stands up again.
“Thank you for returning that to me, by the way,” Jessina says, her smug smile directed at me.
On the floor, Draven drags in a deep breath and tries to blink his eyes into focus. But he is clearly too severely wounded to be able to fight back.
“Take him to the middle and complete the exchange,” Jessina orders as her gaze returns to Lavendera.
Lavendera says nothing. She just gently slides her arm underneath Draven’s and helps him to his feet.
On our side, I simply grab Bane’s shoulder and yank him to his feet. We had to let Haldia partly heal his thighs so that we wouldn’t have to drag him. But we left most of the wounds untreated.
Only the slow thudding of our feet puncture the silence as the four of us start walking towards the middle of the room. I keep my gaze shifting between Jessina, Draven, Lavendera, Bane, and the elite soldiers ahead. We have several plans in case she tries something, but I need to be able to see what it is before it actually happens in order to be of any use.
However, Jessina doesn’t do anything. She simply stands there in her slightly muddy dress, watching me with sharp eyes.
Lavendera and I reach the middle of the room.
We pause for a moment, then we push our hostage forward at the same time.
Draven stumbles into me.
My heart skips a beat at just feeling him close to me again. All I want to do is to hug him and tell him that everything will be okay. But I can’t. First, we need to get him to safety.
I shift my gaze to Lavendera as I start backing across the floor while supporting Draven with a firm arm around his waist.
“I will never forgive you for this,” I tell her as she starts doing the same with Bane.
“I don’t want forgiveness,” she replies. But she doesn’t say it in a challenging way. Instead, her voice sounds… sad.
Not knowing how to respond to that, I just continue backing across the floor. My gaze flits from face to face as I try to anticipate where the trap will come from. We have almost reached our own sides of the room now. Whatever Jessina has planned, it’s going to happen soon.
My heart thunders in my chest as I back the final distance to Galen.
The moment I’m within reach, he grabs Draven, spins them both around and shoves his best friend straight into Lyra’s arms. Lyra does the same, whirling around and maneuvering Draven into Orion’s range. Within a heartbeat, the Unseelie King has disappeared through the portal with Draven.
The whole thing took barely more than a few seconds.
Across the floor, Jessina jerks back slightly in surprise. Then annoyance flits across her face as she glances at the portal while her elite soldiers take Bane from Lavendera.
I let out a shuddering breath of relief as the rest of us start quickly retreating towards the portal as well. Whatever happens now, at least Draven made it out safely.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Jessina calls, and raises her hand. “We’re not done yet.”
Lyra slips out through the portal, shortly followed by Galen. Isera, Alistair, and I have almost reached it as well.
There is movement from the side of the room as another group of people suddenly start moving across the floor.
“Go!” I hiss.
Isera darts through the portal.
“There is someone who wants to see you, Selena,” Jessina calls right before I can step through the portal as well.
My gaze flits towards the new group of people.
And my heart stops.
“If I see either of your eyes glowing, they die,” Jessina warns from across the room.
