Page 67 of Realm of Wind and Vines
“She took him. Alistair and I can’t fly, and she was halfway across the city by the time Galen and Lyra managed to get free from the horde of dragons that was swarming them as well.” For the first time since she stepped through the portal, her eyes soften a fraction as she holds my gaze. “There was nothing we could do.”
Panic thrashes inside me, and those massive black waves that threaten to crush me wobble precariously inside my soul. I drag in short, jagged breaths.
“We need to go back,” I declare. Whipping around, I lock eyes with Orion. “Call Grey back. Tell him to open another portal to the Seelie Court.”
Orion’s gaze slides to Isera, and he says nothing.
“Open another portal!” I scream at him.
“No,” Isera replies from behind me. “The castle is already overrun. And Draven isn’t there anymore.”
I whirl around to face her, rage burning through me like wildfire. But the expression on her face stops the threat on my tongue before I can spit it out. Pain and sympathy, emotions that I’ve almost never seen on her face before, shine in her eyes as she just holds my gaze in silence.
“Selena,” Lyra suddenly says from where she’s standing next to Alistair. Her voice is also laced with pain. “We all want him back. But he’s not in the Seelie Court anymore. Going back there isn’t going to help him. First, we need to figure out where she took him.”
On my other side, Galen paces the stone floor like a snarling wolf. But even he doesn’t argue.
“We still have Bane,” Alistair says, addressing the entire room. “We can use him to get Jessina.”
“How?” I ask. “How are we?—”
Pain suddenly spikes through my chest.
It’s so violent that I double over and gasp out loud.
Another stab of pain hits me.
Sheer horror washes through me when I realize where it’s coming from.
The mate bond.
I can feel Draven’s pain through our flickering mate bond.
Jerking upright, I gasp out, “She’s hurting him!”
“What?” several of the others reply at the same time.
Another burst of pain hits me through the mate bond. And I know from experience that the intensity of the emotions that I feel through our mate bond is only a tiny fraction of what Draven feels.
Blind rage hits me like a boulder. It’s so intense, so all-consuming, that my vision actually blacks out for a second.
Lurching forward, I yank open the door to Bane’s cell.
The four guards inside jump in surprise, but Orion must signal to them from behind my back because they do nothing as I storm into the cell. Before we left a few minutes ago, I increased Bane’s small spark of tiredness until he passed out from it. Now, I shove my magic into his chest and smother that flame of tiredness again. He jerks awake.
“Show him those memories again,” I snap at Orion, my words coming out like an order rather than a request.
Thankfully, Orion doesn’t make an issue of it. He just summons his magic and hits Bane with it without question. Bane yanks hard against the thick manacles that keep him trapped, and he throws his head from side to side as he is forced back into his worst memories.
Standing there before him, I summon my own magic and slam it into that black flame of despair in his chest. Then I start increasing it. And increasing it. And increasing it.
Bane thrashes hard in the chair as I amplify his emotions over and over again. Desperate whines rip from his throat, along with broken sobs, and his limbs shake violently.
I keep increasing the strength of my magic, knowing that Jessina can feel all of this through her own mate bond with Bane.
She thinks I’m cruel? Oh, we have only scratched the fucking surface of just how cruel and vicious I can really be.
Another burst of pain stabs through my chest. Stronger this time.
