A Shield of Glass (A Shade of Vampire #49)(27)

Draven stared at the Lord of Maras with genuine disbelief.

“What kind of sacrifice would it be, if I ended up finishing Azazel’s job for him?” he snapped.

“A sacrifice gone wrong.” Jax held his chin up, his jawline firm, but a sympathetic glimmer in his jade-colored eyes. “Good intentions succumbing to Asherak’s darkness.”

“No.” Draven shook his head, stepping farther away from our group.

My heart tied itself in knots at the sight of his misery, and judging by Serena’s pained expression and fast breathing, she couldn’t stand to see him like this either. She moved toward Draven, but he raised his hands in a blocking gesture, stopping her in her tracks.

“Just no. I would never take a life like that. I would never betray those who have helped me. Who have helped Eritopia,” he said. “I can’t… I would rather die. I would rather end myself if I have to.”

“Draven, don’t say that,” Serena’s sharp voice cut through.

She was angry, her hands balled into fists at her sides, tears welling up in her eyes. Draven looked at her, his eyebrows raised, as he clearly hadn’t expected her to take such a slicing tone.

“You listen to me carefully, Druid,” she added. “What Vita saw is a probable future.”

“The most probable,” Jax added.

“You’re not helping!” she barked at the Mara, whose mouth flattened as he looked down, like a kid being reprimanded by his mother. She then glared at Draven. “You! You won’t go dark, you hear me? I won’t let you! We know what’s going to happen, so we can prevent it. We’ve talked about this before. Every time the future shows us something horrible, we all gasp and cry and feel bad and suffer. But we change it. It’s the same now. We’re going to change it!”

She then turned to face us, her nostrils flaring.

“We need to focus on the big picture here,” she continued. “The single and most immediate threat is Azazel. We don’t know enough about Vita’s vision right now to take any action against it. But what we can do is move forward with our alliance against that snaky bastard. We need to get Vita out of there. We need a concealment spell for the Oracles. We have work to do!”

Her resolve was truly impressive, and rather infectious. Hansa and Jax nodded. I felt Field’s hand as it tightened its grip on mine. I looked at him and nearly lost myself in his turquoise gaze. He was so calm and quiet. I took a page out of his book and willed myself into a balanced state while Serena’s words buzzed around in my head.

She was right. We had a lot of work to do.

“We need to hold out until the alliance meeting,” Serena added, looking at Draven and Phoenix. “Put all those dark thoughts aside for now. We will talk all this through once we get Vita back here safely. We will find a way to change the outcome, like we always do.”

Phoenix didn’t reply, looking away and barely moving his head in a faint nod. Draven took a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds, then exhaled sharply. He was nowhere near done with the subject, but he seemed to agree with Serena—we had more urgent issues to deal with.

“I think it would be best if we kept this among ourselves for now,” Draven said slowly, looking at the whole group. “It might cause reluctance among our allies if they knew about my potential downfall.”

“Thorn and I won’t say a word,” said the female of the two Bajangs in the archive hall with us. Her companion raised an eyebrow and nodded.

“We can’t afford doubt in our ranks at this point,” he said. “Rest assured, Druid, we will keep quiet about this.”

“I won’t tell my mother either,” Eva chimed in, her amber-yellow gaze fixed on Draven. “Unless it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise there is no point to adding concern to an already difficult situation.”

“Thank you, Eva,” Serena replied with forced politeness.

“I’m looking after the future father of my child, that’s all.” She winked back.

That remark earned her an icy glare from Serena, but the young Lamia didn’t seem to care. I would’ve expressed my own displeasure with her deliberately stinging words, but I took comfort in the fact that she was going to get the short end of the stick in the end, as Draven was never going to go through with Tamara’s condition. If anything, I tried not to smirk at the thought of seeing her face when they eventually told her she wasn’t going to have a little Draven.

The Druid ignored her completely, choosing to resume his seat at the large round table in the middle, where a mountain of books and scrolls waited.

Serena watched him for a moment before she went to Phoenix and cupped his cheek.

“Phoenix, it’ll be okay,” she said. “We won’t let this happen. We’re Shadians, you know. We don’t bend so easily, do we?”

He didn’t reply, but his gaze was locked on hers. Their eyes flickered gold, and I figured they were reading each other’s emotions. Phoenix scoffed, then walked over to one of the windows, choosing to stand there and look outside.

Serena moved to try to talk to him again, but I reached out and caught her wrist.

“Don’t,” I told her. “Give him some time. He needs to process all this. It’s coming down on him too fast and too hard.”

“I can’t stand to see him like this,” she muttered.