Page 121 of Throne of Ice and Blood
Twisting tree branches explode into view across the entire corridor, snaking around the humans and trapping them in place.
My heart stops and ice washes through my veins as I stare at the woman who strides out of the fray.
Her long brown hair ripples down her back as she stalks across the ice floor. The faelights in the ceiling illuminate her gorgeous features as well as the vicious scar across her cheek and jaw.
My mind cannot process what I’m seeing.
Then those stunning pink and purple eyes snap towards me and lock straight on my face, and reality slams into me like a blow to the chest.
Lavendera.
Before her name has even finished reverberating through my skull, a branch shoots out and wraps around my waist.
I gasp in shock, snapping out of my stupor and slam my hands down on the branch now encircling my waist.
“Round them up,” Lavendera snaps to the guards as she strides down the corridor towards me.
She pushes her palms upwards in the air, and a thick nest of tree branches rises behind her, cutting both of us off from the rest of the corridor.
Alarm screams inside my head as I desperately pound against the wood and kick and wiggle. The branch tightens around my waist.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Lavendera says as she closes the final distance between us. Her voice is hard, but her eyes are filled with sorrow.
“You sold us out!” I scream back in her face, fury and desperation lacing every word.
A wave of sadness washes over her beautiful face, and when she speaks, her voice is softer. Almost gentle. “No, I didn’t sell you out. I was never on your side to begin with.”
Her words clang inside my skull for several seconds, like the echo of a giant bell, before I finally process what she is actually telling me. I suck in an unsteady breath, my whole worldview tilting sideways again.
“You work for them.” It’s not really a question, but Lavendera answers anyway.
“Yes.”
Blood pounds in my ears as I stare at her. “For how long? Did you work for them during the Atonement Trials too?”
“Yes. My job is to make sure that the strongest magic users move on to the next trial.” A sad smile blows across her lips, and she cocks her head as she holds my gaze. As if she can’t believe that I haven’t realized this earlier. “Why do you think I killed Maximus? He cheated. We all knew it, but no one could prove it. So I had to enforce the rules on their behalf.”
And suddenly, a whole flood of things that never really made sense become crystal clear.
“You led Alistair, Isera, and Trevor to the rings,” I blurt out. “Youledthem there. Because they were the strongest magic users.”
“Yes. But then Trevor dropped out on his own because of his head injury. So then someone else had to win.” Another small smile tugs at her lips. “That’s why I didn’t take the ring from you when I found you at the edge of the forest.”
I feel like my soul is crumbling in on itself. Swallowing down the dread crawling up my throat, I press out, “That’s why you knew so much. About the sterilization and the magical bloodline breeding.”
“Yes.”
“No!” I scream as fury spears through me. Fighting desperately, I slam my fists down on the thick branch trapping me, trying to shatter it. “How can you even use magic? You’re wearing an iron collar too, for Mabona’s sake!”
Lavendera draws her fingers over the metal collar around her throat. “It’s not real iron. It was just a way to make sure that you wouldn’t become suspicious of me.”
“Why?” The word rips out of my throat, raw and dripping with anger and despair. “Why did you do this to us? Why are you doing this to us?”
Deep sorrow swirls in her pink and purple eyes, but she says nothing.
“How did you even know what we were planning?” I snap while still banging my fists on the wood and wiggling furiously. “You weren’t even there when I told Isera and Alistair about the plan!”
“I followed you to that blond dragon shifter on Ember Hill. Both times. The first, I could only watch from the trees in the street. But the second time, I heard your entire conversation. That cluster of branches that made you jump and that you glared at before leaving… that was me.”
