Page 57

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

“ T his is definitely not just a game anymore,” Draven says while sheathing his sword down his spine again. “They came at us with the intent to kill.”

A jolt shoots through me. Tearing my gaze from the slaughter around us, I glance up at the canopy and the bits of sky visible above, as if I can see the mass of spectators watching this from the stands of the arena.

Oh Goddess, people are watching this. In here, with only the twisted trees and colorful plants around us, I’ve forgotten that the farseer is projecting everything that is happening in here for the Unseelie Court to see.

Dread curls around my spine. What must they think of me?

How much could they see? I knew what I was doing to the White Faction since I was making the decisions in my mind, but how much of what happened could someone understand from the outside? Could they tell how much I liked it?

Panic flutters through my stomach.

Even now, I can still remember that intoxicating feeling of power and pleasure that utterly consumed me.

Still remember how good it felt to be the one in control.

To hold someone else’s life in my hands.

Can still remember that incredible pleasure that comes from creating emotions from nothing. I already want to feel it again.

Jocasta told me that the addictive effect would likely be stronger for me since my magic is stronger, but I didn’t realize just how intense it would be. I need to figure out how to handle that side effect of my powers. Because what happened here today can never happen again.

“You sure you’re okay?” Draven asks, his golden eyes worried as he looks me up and down.

Another pang of dread hits me right in the chest. Oh Goddess. Draven. He must have been able to feel it through the mate bond. He must have been able to sense the pleasure I felt when I was torturing that woman. How am I supposed to explain all of this to him?

“Yes, no, sorry.” I clear my throat and drag in a breath to compose myself while desperately trying to come up with some kind of explanation that won’t make me sound like a raging psycho who is one tiny tether away from losing control.

“Whatever was happening before we ate those blue mushrooms messed with my head, and I think it’s still affecting me a little. ”

A knot tightens in my stomach. Goddess above, I really hate lying to him.

But it’s just until I can get a better handle on my powers.

Just until I can better manage the side effects.

I don’t want to be the weak link in our team.

I don’t want to be a burden and a failure.

I don’t want to be the one who drags everyone down just because I can’t control my own bloody magic.

It’s absurd. I’m a hundred and sixty-seven years old, and I still haven’t figured my shit out. I need to get a handle on this. Fast.

Because I don’t want to be the weak link.

I refuse to be the weak link.

So I keep my mouth shut and let Draven believe the lie.

He lets out a low curse under his breath. Then he straightens and flares his wings. “Alright, then let’s get the hell out of this insane fucking forest.”

Blinking in surprise, I glance between him and the small gaps in the trees above. “But the natives… They’ll see us.”

“It’s a risk we’re going to have to take.”

Worry flits through my chest. I don’t want to have to face those strange fae-like beings. But Draven is right. We need to find the portal as soon as possible, and flying is the fastest way to do that.

Sliding my dagger back into my thigh holster, I draw in a bracing breath and then give Draven a nod.

He lifts me into his arms and then shoots up towards the canopy.

My stomach lurches and I tighten my arms around his neck.

I manage to catch his smirk before I squeeze my eyes shut when we reach the treetops.

But Draven maneuvers effortlessly through the gap, and then we’re soaring up into the open sky.

Opening my eyes again, I draw in a long breath to refill my lungs. I’m not sure if it’s partly my imagination, but the air tastes better up here. It’s lighter. More crisp and clear.

I look down while Draven trails to a halt until he’s hovering in place.

The forest spreads out like a green carpet below us.

But the center of the dome is not where I expected it to be.

Whatever was affecting us earlier must have also messed with our sense of direction, because we’ve ended up farther to the side than I thought we were. Goddess above, we’ve lost so much time.

Draven must be thinking the same thing, because he simply tightens his arms around me and then flies straight for the center at full speed.

My hair whips in the wind as we streak across the sky.

I keep my gaze sweeping back and forth over the trees below, searching for both the portal and any signs of those strange beings in bronze armor.

Shouts rise up from the trees.

I suck in a sharp breath between my teeth as Draven suddenly banks hard.

A lightning bolt shoots through the air a second later.

“Fuck,” Draven growls.

Storm clouds gather around us right before a torrent of fire shoots through the sky. I gasp, but Draven slams a blast of wind at it, shoving it off course. The flames roar through the open air beside us.

Whipping my head from side to side, I search desperately for our attackers. Alarm crackles through my veins as I spot glinting bronze armor between the trees below.

“Down to the left,” I yell over the rushing winds.

Draven snaps his head in that direction, but a block of stone is already hurtling towards us.

Yanking his wings in tight, he drops us down in a headlong plummet.

The boulder whooshes past above. My stomach lurches as Draven snaps his wings out again, halting our fall.

He beats his wings hard, and we shoot through the sky.

Magic crackles behind us.

Draven swerves and rolls to evade a blast of water aimed straight at his wings.

“Arrows!” I scream.

He snaps his wings back in right before a hail of arrows speeds through the air.

My hair whips above my head as we plummet down like a stone. Flaring his wings again, Draven halts our descent but then has to immediately roll us over in the air as flames roar above us.

I tighten my arms around his neck even more as we spin through the air. My pulse pounds in my ears and my stomach rolls as Draven drops us down again and then manages to speed forward a short distance before he has to swerve hard to the side to evade another rain of arrows and a bolt of lightning.

While hanging on to his tense body, I snap my gaze back and forth across the ground, desperately searching for any signs of a glittering blue portal. If we can just make it there, we can?—

Something rises up from the ground from halfway between us and the edge of the dome. Something big .

Fear courses through me as I stare at that dark blot on the sky. From this distance, it’s impossible to tell what it is. But it’s long and relatively thin compared to its length. Almost like a snake. A massive snake.

“Draven,” I blurt out while he dives to escape another torrent of fire. “Draven, something is coming. Behind us.”

Spinning us in the air, he evades a block of stone while casting a glance in the direction I indicated. His eyes widen.

“What the fuck is that?” he presses out.

“Watch out!” I scream.

A blast of water slams into us. I gasp as it hits Draven in the back. The sheer force of it sends us tumbling through the sky while water splashes out across Draven’s wings. His arms tighten around me as we spin over and over while we tumble towards the treetops.

Then he snaps his wings out again, drops of water bursting out from them like gleaming gemstones.

Lightning crackles through the air. But Draven meets it with a white bolt of his own. A deafening boom echoes across the forest as the two lightning strikes collide. I squeeze my eyes shut against the blinding light that explodes across the treetops.

“We need to find the portal before whatever the hell that is gets here,” Draven says as he takes off again.

More lightning and fire and water roar through the air after us.

“Can’t you shift into a dragon?” I call over the rushing of wind and crackling of magic. “A real dragon. And just torch that fucking group in bronze armor?”

“No. I tried when we were first attacked. It doesn’t work.”

A snarl of frustration rips from my lungs.

But it makes sense. Hana has pulled this part of the forest into her reality, which is inside the Unseelie Court.

That means that the wards that suppress the dragon shifters’ ability to shift inside the Unseelie Court now also covers this part of the forest that is inside Hana’s pocket reality.

Lightning cleaves the air again.

Draven throws us to the side and rolls through the air. My stomach turns as the ground and the sky switch places over and over again. Gasping in a breath to steady myself, I redouble my efforts to find that goddess damned portal.

We’re getting closer to the center of the dome now.

But so is that massive thing that is flying towards us from behind.

Arrows speed straight for us. But they clatter down on the treetops behind us as we at last start putting some real distance between us and the group in bronze armor on the ground. I snap my gaze back and forth as Draven hurtles across the trees, his wings booming in the air on either side of us.

My mind churns as I scan the woods ahead.

The portal will likely be hidden so that it can’t be seen straight away from above, since Orion knows about Draven’s ability to use the half-shift.

But it can’t be too hidden, because Yster is probably using that portal as his vantage point to look inside the pocket reality and project it to the crowd.

So something that shields it from above but leaves the sides open for maximum visibility.