Aportal rises from the pale stone floor in the middle of the high-ceilinged hall right as I jog into Orion’s throne room. My feet thud against the royal blue carpet that leads towards the imposing black throne ahead. All around me, light falls in through the tall windows that run the length of the room, illuminating the vibrant vines with flowers in shades of violet, dark blue, and silver that climb up the stone pillars. And above, the breathtaking night sky with glittering stars and northern lights in green and purple that has been painted across the entire ceiling watches me impassively as I run through the beautiful room.

The Unseelie King himself is already there, standing a few steps in front of the glittering blue portal. And so is Isera, Alistair, and Diana. I flick a quick glance at Grey, who is opening the portal, while I hurry over to join the others.

The moment the portal is fully open, a fae woman steps through. Nysara, Orion’s spy in Frostfell, is not wearing her dragon shifter glamour today. Instead, she looks like herself. A fae with long black hair and eyes that are a mix of yellow and violet. However, there is no cat-like smirk on her lips and no cocky tilt of her chin as she enters the throne room. Quite the opposite.

As soon as Nysara sees Orion, she gets down on her knees before his feet and bows her head almost all the way to the floor. “My king.”

A short distance from them, Isera rolls her eyes.

Orion flashes her a smirk. “Just you wait, little viper. You will willingly kneel before me soon enough as well.”

She scoffs in reply.

Nysara, who is apparently pretending not to have heard their short exchange, simply continues by saying in a reverent voice, “It is an honor to be recalled to the Unseelie Court. It has been… long.”

“Continue to serve me as flawlessly as you have, and I might allow you to return permanently,” Orion replies.

She snaps her head up, shock and a fragile hint of hope pulsing on her beautiful features. However, before she can say anything, three people stride in through the open doorway.

Draven, Lyra, and Galen, now wearing their black dragon scale armor again, quickly close the distance to us. Drawing his eyebrows down in a slight frown, Draven flicks his gaze from the kneeling Nysara to the Unseelie King standing before her.

“Do we have a location?” Draven asks.

“I was just getting to that part,” Orion replies.

“He just had to finish satisfying his need for power plays first,” Isera adds while shooting him a knowing look from the corner of her eye.

His eyes glint as he narrows them at her. “Careful with that tongue, little viper.”

“Seriously?” Draven demands before she can retort. Exasperation lines his face as he shakes his head at the Unseelie King. “Right now? We don’t have time for this.”

Orion shifts his gaze back to Draven. “I know that you’re just a brooding beast with no sense of style or etiquette, but in normal societies, it is customary to greet each other properly before the conversation begins.”

“And this is a proper greeting?” Draven demands while stabbing a hand to indicate Nysara where she is still kneeling before Orion’s feet.

“It is indeed.” Orion flicks his long dark blue hair back behind his shoulder. “In fact, I expect you all to greet me in this manner from now on.”

Half of the room groans.

Draven shoots him an annoyed look of disbelief before simply demanding, “The location?”

For a moment, it looks like Orion might retort. Or smirk. But in the end, he just shifts his gaze back to Nysara. “Where are the Icehearts right now?”

“In the Ice Palace,” she replies without hesitation. “But based on the movement of people up there, it looked like they’re about to leave.”

A ripple goes through the room as we all fix our attention on the Unseelie spy. My heart starts beating faster. Jessina and Bane must have already gone through the Green Clan’s archives and found out what happened to the Gold Clan. Or maybe Kander already knew and simply just told them. After all, as long as the Icehearts can destroy his archives, he will do whatever they want.

“To go where?” Orion presses, his sharp eyes still locked on Nysara.

Dread flits across her face for a second, and she licks her lips before admitting, “I don’t know.”

“Fuck,” Draven growls. Then he draws himself up to his full height and sweeps his gaze over all of us. “Alright, we need to find out where⁠—”

“Draven,” Galen interrupts, a hint of worry in his tone. “We need our allies. Now that the dragon steel is no longer in play, we need to get Tanaka and the Orange Clan on our side. Her healing magic is much stronger than Haldia’s, and Haldia refuses to even go outside the wards, let alone participate in battle, so Tanaka’s magic will be crucial for our clan to survive this war.”

“He’s right,” Lyra adds. “We also need the other clans. Even if we somehow manage to get the Gold Clan, we can’t win a war if it’s just our clan and hers.” She nods towards Diana. “The Icehearts have their whole clan, and with their ice flames, they’re way more dangerous in battle than all of us. Plus they also have Gremar Fireclaw and his Red Clan, and the White Clan has been so thoroughly subjugated that they would never dare to go against the Silver Clan. Not to mention that they also have Kander and the Green Clan doing their bidding now.”

Diana tilts her head in a half nod. “She’s got a point, Shadow of Death. They both do. I can’t risk my clan in a battle if our two clans are the only ones fighting it.”

A long sigh escapes Draven’s chest, and he tilts his head back and rakes a hand through his hair before meeting all of our gazes again. “Alright, we’re going to have to split up then. Galen, you said that you were able to convince the Blue Clan to stand with us earlier?”

He nods in confirmation.

“I need you to fly there and hold them to that promise now,” Draven says. Then he shifts his gaze to Lyra and Alistair. “Lyra, Rin has always had a soft spot for you. I need you to fly to her floating isles and explain everything that has happened and get her on our side. Take Alistair with you so that he can remove the dragon steel from her as well now that it’s inactive.”

Lyra gives him a cheerful salute and then turns to beam at Alistair, who looks like he doesn’t know whether to grin back or be terrified.

“And Diana,” Draven continues, meeting her gaze. “I know that I have no right to give orders to another clan leader, but if anyone can convince the Brown Clan to side with us, it’s you. Everyone knows that you don’t trust easily, so if they see that you’re with us, they might join us as well even though we don’t have the Green Clan. Would you be willing to fly there and try?”

For a few seconds, she just looks back at him in silence. Then a small and very knowing smile tugs at her lips. “I never thought I’d see the day when Draven Ryat admitted that he can’t just order everyone around. If you had tried, I would’ve said no. But you didn’t. You asked nicely. And because of that, I will do as you say.”

A slight smile ghosts across his lips too as he inclines his head in acknowledgement. “Good. The rest of us will handle the Gold Clan situation.”

“Then let’s get to it,” Orion adds with an impatient look. “The Icehearts might have already left at this point.”

“You’re the one who was just wasting time on proper greetings,” I point out.

He shoots me a very unkinglike scowl in reply.

Draven just ignores him and instead sweeps his gaze over the three dragon shifters around him. “Fly fast. The war has already started.”

They nod.

So do we.

Then we dart through the portal and into Nysara’s house back in Frostfell.

The moment we’re through, Grey closes the portal behind us. No doubt so that he can open a new one that will take Galen and the others outside the wards of the Unseelie Court where they will be able to shift into dragons and quickly fly away to complete their missions.

I turn towards my companions as we all find ourselves inside Nysara’s living room. “We should split up. We need to interrogate as many people as possible. So if we head to different⁠—”

“No!” Nysara interrupts, her voice surprisingly forceful.

Drawing back a little, I turn to stare at her in confusion.

She casts a hesitant glance at Orion and lowers her voice slightly as she explains. “My king, it has been less than a day since you all made this entire city think that a host of dragon clans were heading here to destroy it. The city is still in chaos. There are silver clan soldiers everywhere, trying to restore order. If you go out there now, you three will be immediately recognized as fae. And you,” she looks to Draven, “are the Shadow of Death. Everyone knows what you look like.”

“So glamour us to look like silver clan soldiers,” I say.

“It’s too inefficient.” There is annoyance in her words when they’re directed at me. Then her tone becomes respectful, almost pleading, as she looks to Orion again. “I am very good at my job, and I would do anything for you, my king.”

By the wall, Isera rolls her eyes again.

“So if you want me to find out where they’re going, I will,” Nysara continues, her gaze still solely on Orion. “And I will do so very quickly. So please, just give me a chance to prove it.”

The desperation in her voice surprises me. I’m not sure what the story is with Nysara, but based on her and Orion’s conversation in his throne room, I get the feeling that she might have been sent here as punishment for something. It sounded like she wants to go home to the Unseelie Court, but that she is not allowed to.

The Unseelie King holds her gaze for a second and then gives her a nod. “Go.”

Relief floods her features. “Thank you, my king.”

Her dress flutters around her as she whirls around and hurries towards the door. Before she has even left the dining room, her hair has already become blond and her ears round as she glamours herself to look like the dragon shifter she pretends to be while living in Frostfell.

The front door shuts behind her with a click.

In the living room, the rest of us… pace.

Tension crackles in the air around us as Draven, Isera, Orion, and I pace back and forth across the smooth floor. I hate waiting for someone else. It’s one of the most frustrating feelings. Just standing here uselessly, doing nothing, while someone else is out there doing what I could be doing as well.

The minutes drag on until I feel like I’m about to crawl up the walls. That terrible restlessness mixes with the already thrumming storm of emotions in my chest. Flexing my hand, I try to suppress the urge to use my magic so that I can feel better. I shouldn’t be using it unless I have to. Every time I do, it gets harder to stop and the new cravings get worse and worse.

A clock above the mantlepiece ticks loudly into the silence. I cast a glance at it while trying to swallow down that urge to create an emotion from nothing. It has been a while now since Nysara left. Grey is opening portals every five minutes to check if we’re ready to go back. Part of me wants to just wait in the Unseelie Court instead. But that somehow feels even worse. At least here, I will be able to see from the windows if two huge silver dragons take flight from the Ice Palace before we can figure out where they’re going.

I shift my gaze back to the window again. Morning sunlight falls in through it, illuminating the dark wooden dining room table that Nysara and I sat at the night when she shattered my whole worldview and told me the truth about this world. Even the same crystal decanter of wine is still waiting there on a silver tray on the table. I draw in another long breath, trying to force my heart to stop beating so fast.

My gaze lingers on the house next to Nysara’s. Maybe I could create an emotion, just a small one, and put it inside one of her neighbors. Just for a few moments. Just to help me get my head back on straight. It wouldn’t even⁠—

Loud knocking comes from the back door.

“Nysara!” a male voice yells.

I whip around and suck in a sharp breath.

Oh shit.

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