The final flicker of sympathy inside me is crushed into oblivion as I once again remember the feeling of that world-ending pain that Draven had to endure after his wings were whipped to shreds. And it wasn’t the first and only time they did that. They whipped his wings like that every day forsix years.
That massive black ocean of rage and hatred roars up inside me like tidal waves.
Every day. For six years.
I’m going to fucking kill them for that alone.
Screaming suddenly echoes through the room.
I whip my head towards the portal to find Isera and Alistair practically throwing Lyra and Galen in through that glittering blue rectangle before diving through themselves.
“Close it!” Isera screams at Grey.
Grey’s gaze immediately darts to Orion, who jerks his chin down in a nod. Roars and clanging sounds come from the other side of the portal for a second, drawing closer at an alarming rate. Then it collapses into the ground, and deafening silence falls over the room.
I flick my gaze over all of them, looking for Draven.
Ice spreads through my chest.
“No!” Galen screams, shoving Alistair away from him. “We can’t just?—”
“Where is Draven?” I demand, my voice cutting through the room like lightning.
Galen turns towards me. His violet eyes are filled with panic and dread and guilt.
“He’s… gone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The dark fury inside me is swallowing my whole soul. That small spark of light and hope is now nothing more than a tiny pinprick in a stormy ocean full of thrashing black tidal waves. I can barely hear anything over the roaring in my ears as Orion ushers us all out of Bane’s cell and into the dimly lit stone corridor outside. The door closes behind us with a thud. The four soldiers remain inside, keeping Bane under control, while Grey quickly disappears into the stairwell up ahead.
“What do you meangone?” I demand as soon as we’re alone.
“We could’ve gotten him back!” Galen snarls at Isera. “We could’ve?—”
“No,” she snaps, cutting him off. “We couldn’t. You know it as well as I do. There was nothing we could’ve done to take him back at that point.”
“But the?—”
“We barely managed to get the two of you out! She was already halfway across the city when?—”
“Just tell me what happened!” I scream at them, panic still thrashing inside my chest.
Deafening silence falls over the rough stone corridor. It’s so loud that it almost echoes between the walls.
“It was as if Jessina could feel it the moment that you took Bane,” Lyra begins, her orange eyes full of dread and worry.
“She probably could,” Alistair adds from where he is standing next to her. “Through their mate bond.”
My heart slams against my ribs, and I barely manage to press out, “What happened?”
“She just… went berserk,” Alistair continues. Disbelief shines on his face as he shakes his head. “Shecut offGremar’s hand with a sword to get the dragon steel off.”
A jolt shoots through me, and I reach towards those glowing orders that are supposed to be floating in the back of my mind. They’re no longer there. My mouth is dry as sand as I try to swallow through the storm of emotions that is building inside me.
“Once that was gone, the entire Red Clan showed up as well,” Isera picks up. “Along with the soldiers from the Silver Clan who were already there. Draven was swarmed. He shifted into a half-shift to try to escape in the chaos, but Jessina in her dragon form somehow managed to knock him out.”
My heart pounds painfully as I whisper, “Where is he?”
