Page 140 of Throne of Ice and Blood
Galen and Lyra fly up beside us as we speed across the city.
Bane has flown too far away, but Jessina snaps her head towards us. We might be invisible, and any sound might be drowned out by everyone’s booming wings, but they can stillfeelthe rushing air that Draven, Lyra, and Galen create when they streak past.
Dread crackles through me as Jessina swings her head in our direction and opens her jaws wide.
“Watch out!” I scream.
A massive torrent of ice flames shoots from her mouth as she turns her head from one side to the other, breathing the ice fire like a wide wall. It speeds towards us through the sky.
Alistair and Isera whip around and shove their magic at it.
Searing flames burn through the ice on Alistair’s side, making it melt and stopping its momentum so that the rest crashes down like blocks of ice over the buildings below, while Isera throws a barrier of ice towards the ones on our side.
It hits Jessina’s ice flames with acrackthat echoes across the whole countryside.
Both attacks hit with furious force, and ice explodes as the two walls collide. Shards and chunks of it are blown outwards in both directions with enough force to smash through windows in the city below.
I gasp as one of them hits me in the back, but because of my tight grip on Draven’s spikes, I manage to keep it from knocking me off his back.
Jessina roars in frustration and swivels her head as we speed away.
Relief washes over me when the city disappears from below us and we’re instead flying across the fields and farmlands that surround Frostfell. And with every beat of their wings, they take us closer and closer to that open horizon.
Exhaustion laces my body, but I manage a smile at that glittering night sky ahead.
We did it. We got out. Isera and Alistair are free. Draven is free. The entire Black Dragon Clan is free.Iam free.
The heist might have failed, but I still managed to make the entire human population inside Frostfell rise up and rebel against the Iceheart Dynasty. Their city is in chaos. They have lost the Commander of the Dread Legion. And Draven is on my side.
I lit the match that sparked the rebellion in Frostfell, and with Draven’s help, this might just be the start. We might be able to free the Seelie Court and find a way to topple the entire Iceheart Dynasty and kill Bane and Jessina for good.
And now that we are no longer enemies, I might finally be able to allow myself to consider what he told me back there in his bedroom. That he has fallen in love with me. That he is in love with me.
Just the thought of that makes my heart squeeze tight.
I still hate that we’re fated mates. I hate that I didn’t get a choice. That I wasn’t allowed to choose him on my own. But now that we have time, now that I know the truth, I might be able to at least start figuring out how much of our emotions are real and how much of them were forced upon us by the mate bond.
A smile, full of fragile hope, spreads across my lips.
This might?—
Draven banks, and I feel myself sliding to the side. Gripping the spike harder, I try to force myself to stay on as I press my thighs harder against his scales. Goddess above, I’m tired. I’m so tired that I can barely move my legs.
Thankfully, Draven straightens again, which stops me from sliding.
I stare down at my legs. Then I cough. It’s wet, forcing me to wipe it off with the back of my hand.
Confusion swirls inside me when the back of my hand is red when I return it to the spike before me. I try to adjust my position again, but my legs refuse to move.
Why is…?
Reaching behind me, I pat my back where the chunk of ice hit me earlier.
My heart stops as my hand meets something hard and sharp that sticks out of my back. Everything inside me suddenly goes unnaturally silent.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see a huge shard of ice sticking out of my spine. But I can’t feel it.
I cough again and then look back down at my legs.
