Page 72 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

“I don’t trust him, Teddy.” Didn’t trust how easy it’d been to find some of the missing fae.

Didn’t trust that Leanora hadn’t used the lirio as guards around the castle or in the dungeon.

Didn’t trust the simplicity of entering Alastor’s unlocked cell and his eagerness to help. “This feels like a trap.”

“There’s an orb,” Teddy continued as if I hadn’t spoken.

“Leanora uses it as a siphon. It holds the magic she absorbs and stores it until she’s ready to channel it to herself.

He’s not sure exactly where it is but said we need to track it down and destroy it so that it weakens her.

There are consequences to destroying it though.

” She drew her brows together in concern. “He doesn’t know what it is though.”

I gripped her elbow and urged her to stand up and move away from Alastor. Her eyes searched my face, and I was sure it held all my doubt.

“Eiran asked me if I’d show Alastor mercy.

” She peered down at him before her attention returned to me.

“I think he wanted me to help Alastor. I think”—she rubbed her chest—“I think we can trust him, but I don’t know, Elias.

If this is all a trap, then I’m falling right into it.

But what if he’s telling the truth, and we ignore it? She’s already in the human realm.”

I tasted the sourness of her fear on my tongue, so I leaned down to rest my forehead against hers, taking a moment to breathe.

What did we know about Leanora from Teddy’s journals?

She’d forced Alastor into a life of servitude where she drained him of his magic repeatedly.

Whether or not I trusted him didn’t matter when I knew she’d do the same to these fae.

I moved back to kiss her temple. “Ask him how we can interrupt the connection between Leanora and the fae without destroying the orb.” Because all we had was the possibility of right now. Whether or not we found the orb wasn’t relevant in the moment. We could worry about that next.

She nodded before going back to her knees and settling next to Alastor. Brenton followed her, his hand on her shoulder while I surveyed our surroundings. Past the shadows the sphere of fae light cast, I could see with my instincts at their most basic level.

On the floor, Teddy murmured words I didn’t understand.

Her magic started to move slowly around her and Alastor.

It spun and spun, each swipe getting faster until it was a blur of peach, and I could barely make out where Teddy still knelt.

Her foreign words grew louder, tinged with a voice I didn’t recognize as her peach threads seemed to twine with a dull green ribbon that grew and grew until it overtook her peach.

Brenton fell back, and he lunged for Teddy at the same time I did, tearing through the strands of magic snaking around her.

I ignored the way her magic, Alastor’s magic, tore through my arm and forced myself forward until I reached her.

Screaming, I tugged on her arm, but it wasn’t until Brenton also reached her, that her magic fell away, taking Alastor’s with her.

On her knees, she bent over, heaving in breath after breath. I took her in my arms, shaking as furiously as she did.

“Ted,” Brenton whispered.

She peered up at him, her smile wobbly, and said, “I’m okay.” She jutted her chin out toward Alastor, whose eyes blinked open.

Without thinking, I lunged for him, ready to tear him in half while he tried to scoot away. But Teddy’s shout reached me and made me pause. My fisted hand that wrung the collar of his shirt trembled, but I forced myself to look away from him and toward my mate.

“He didn’t hurt me.” Her tone was as gentle as the hand she rested on my arm. “He doesn’t want to hurt any of us.”

I let out a low but vicious snarl that Nalari echoed from outside.

“I need you two to work with Nalari to put up a protective ward around the castle,” she said, her tone taking on an authoritative lilt that somehow soothed me.

She tugged on my arm, and when I didn’t let go of my grip on Alastor, she ran her fingers over the top of my hand and knuckles.

I loosened my hold enough for her to take my hand and hold it to her chest, where I felt her heart beating fast. Without me holding him up, Alastor’s knees buckled, and he fell onto the hard concrete floor.

“We don’t have a lot of time, mo elma .” Still, her tone was confident and commanding as she took control of the situation.

“Leanora will have felt the break between her and Alastor and know we are here. Put up the ward to keep your people safe while Alastor and I work to break the connection between her and the fae.”

Blinking, I took in her words as I considered Alastor. She cupped my face and shifted my head so I looked at her.

“You don’t have to trust him,” she said, “but you can trust me. Help me protect your people.”

I nodded toward Brenton. “Stay,” I ordered him, my voice gruff and foreign to me. “If he hurts her in any way, kill him.”

Brenton’s canines pulled out, and he snarled at Alastor, whose skin had gotten paler. His dull gray eyes, lined with dark circles, widened, but with Teddy’s help, he managed to stand .

“I won’t harm Theodora.” His voice was hoarse, and he licked his chapped lips.

Teddy shot me a disapproving glare when I growled again.

“Brent should go with you,” she said, letting the mage lean on her for support. “The ward will be stronger with magic from all three of you.”

“I have four dragons with me,” Nalari said through our joined connection. “They’ll help us build the ward.”

With a final glance at my mate, who gave me a reassuring smile, I ran out of the dungeon and through the castle until I met Nalari in the courtyard. All the while, a tug in my chest demanded I go back to Teddy. To keep her safe.

Even with the constant snowfall, it wasn’t as cold outside as in the dungeon.

Four other dragons stood beside my Guardian in varying degrees of size and color. None of them were as big as Nalari, but even the white dragon, who was the smallest in the group, was large enough to topple a dozen of the hills back in Colina Verde.

“Channel your magic to me,” Nalari said.

When I started to object, she interrupted me with a low snarl.

“I will only take what I need from you.” Nalari whipped her enormous head to face me. “You still must face the mage, and I will not risk you depleting your magic for this ward.”

The energy around me shifted to an electric current as the four dragons channeled their magic to Nalari.

As I started to do the same, I felt Nalari’s magic swim inside me.

It pulled at the tendrils of magic from within my soul and only took a small piece.

So tiny I doubted it made much of an impact.

To the side, I sensed the beginning of the invisible shield Nalari started to erect. It glistened, a faint shimmer I normally wouldn’t have been able to detect. That shimmer grew out and up, covering the castle and its grounds.

A flock of six thunderbirds flew toward us, inching their way through the closing shield.

While the dragons continued to work on the shield, I summoned my magic and threw spikes of ice at the incoming flock.

Two went down with shrieking cries while I continued to fling ice spikes at the rest of them.

From a distance, fourteen lirio stood in front of the tree line that faced the courtyard, neither approaching nor withdrawing. Just staring. Scrutinizing. The one in the center lifted its long, gangly arm and pointed at me. Kept pointing as moss hung from its branch-like arm.

Distracted, I didn’t notice when a thunderbird readied its lightning strike.

I would’ve been struck if not for the red-and-black dragon who jumped in front of me to take the hit as he blew fire from his gaping mouth as his last breath.

The mighty dragon fell, pushing snow in the air with the brutal impact.

A single shot of lightning had taken down the dragon, when dragons were practically immortal. Leanora’s influence over the birds, her magic, must’ve made the strike more lethal, making it something no fae could survive. What other tricks did she have planned?

Nalari’s sudden sorrow crashed down on me. Her anger invaded my senses so that I saw through her rage-filled eyes. Like I’d done that night of the barbecue, my anger rose through me like a living thing, growing and growing until fire burst from within me and incinerated the remaining birds.

Leaving Nalari, I bent space, and with a single step, I traveled to the tree line.

While most of the lirio had disappeared into the thick woods, I tore through one with my sword.

I scanned the trees for more. The hairs on the back of my arm stood when I heard a feminine chuckle come from deep in the forest. Calling for me.

On limber legs, I walked into the forest, following the voice and the ominous darkness that oozed from it. I didn’t have to look behind me to know when the woods closed in on me with the lirio leaving their hiding place to entrap me.

Before me stood a beautiful woman, skin as flawless and white as mine with a smile that spoke of innocence. It was her gray eyes, filled with conniving malice, that held me. Spoke to me about the truths that had been hidden away from me.

Yes, she was truth .

No, not truth. I shook my head to clear it of Leanora’s manipulations. Her whispers grew louder, though, and even as I felt her magic swim through my mind, I couldn’t push it out. Couldn’t push her out.

She was freedom, where I was no longer a ward to anyone but myself. Where I could free myself of the manipulative dragons who thought themselves gods.

I tried to fight against her impulses, but when she released me of the nuances I once thought were important, I surrendered to her. I was. ..eager for her help in seeing what I truly needed. My heart thundered, rejoicing at the liberation.