Reign of Ice (Forever Fae #4)(67)

“That’s all I needed to know,” he said adamantly. His tone made me pause, and if it wasn’t for the sinking feeling in my stomach I wouldn’t think anything of it. However, something wasn’t right and I could feel it as sure as I could feel my heart beating.

“Brayden, what’s going on? I think the question right now is where are you? What the hell are you doing?” I waited for him to answer, but he never did.

My eyes went wide as Merrick jumped out of his seat and disappeared almost instantly. The air around us turned electric and hummed with the buzzing of power. Bastian felt it too and got to his feet immediately, rushing to the door. I glamoured myself to look like Gothin again and joined him.

“Can you feel it, Your Highness?” Bastian questioned, eyeing the people in the village. They were on full alert; they could feel it, too.

“He’s coming …”

As soon as I finished saying that, the forest lit up with the heat and blaze of a dragon’s fire … my brother’s fire. “Brayden! What are you doing?” I screamed in his mind.

“I am getting you back, angel. You left me no choice. I told you I would always come for you and I am going to uphold that promise.”

I grabbed Bastian’s arm and pulled him out the door. “Let’s go,” I yelled, taking off toward one of the prisons.

It was the perfect time to get the prisoners out while the village was in disarray. The dragon roar from my brother sounded overhead, but then another battle cry screamed out in unison. It was Sorcha. They were getting ready to swoop and attack. Stopping outside of the prison doors, I turned to Bastian and said quickly, “Go to the horses and grab my bag. I need you to bring it here. Hurry!”

He nodded and took off through the village. Merrick finally appeared again and followed me into the prison. I noticed that most of the people in the cells were women, and they cowered away from me when I opened the doors. “You’re free!” I shouted. “As soon as you get out of here run as fast as you can out of the forest. Help will come.”

“They’re scared of you, Ariella,” Merrick said. “They see Gothin when they look at you.”

Oh, no! Merrick was right; no wonder they were shaking and terrified. Dirty and starving, I could tell some of them were from the Summer Court and some of them were from Winter. Will they ever recover from this? I wondered.

“Who?” Brayden asked, interrupting my inner thought.

“These women in the prison,” I said, frustrated. “I’m freeing them. They are going to need help.”

Briskly, I transformed in front of their eyes and bent down to their level. I had no clue if they knew who I was or how long they had been there. They gasped and cried, but I cut them off, knowing we had to hurry. “Listen, I’m Ariella, former Princess of the Summer Court and now Queen of the Winter. Please, I need you to get up and get out of here.”

“What about the sorcerer, and how did you come in here looking like that disgusting troll?” one of them asked, getting up on her shaky feet. I grabbed her hand and helped her, making sure she was settled before letting her go.

“One of my powers is the ability to shift into other people. I killed Gothin so I could get to the sorcerer and kill him. So hurry, I need you to get out of here,” I ordered, pulling the others to their feet. They swiftly ran out of the cell and out the door, praising me with their thanks. I could only hope they made it to safety. It was a better chance than being locked away in the prison.

There was one woman, however, who wasn’t moving nor was she conscious. She was a Winter fae, but with all the dirt and grime on her you could barely tell. I lifted her frail body in my arms and carried her to the door at the same time Bastian stormed in carrying my bag.

He dropped the bag and held out his arms. “Give her to me, Ariella. I’ll carry her.”

I passed her to him and bent down to open my bag. There was one thing I packed that could be used to my advantage, except the thought of deceiving the people I cared about almost made me not do it. The blue cloak from Brayden that I wore on our bonding night lay neatly bundled in my bag. I ran my fingers gently over its silky fabric as I remembered that night and how much I missed him.

Screams of death echoed outside and it brought me out of my thoughts. I grabbed the cloak and draped it over the woman in Bastian’s arms. If she woke up she would need her eyes hidden away from him or she’d be under his spell forever. Bastian understood why I covered her face and nodded solemnly. However, it wasn’t the only reason why I did it.

The ground shook like an earthquake was tearing our world apart, and then out of nowhere, my brother and Sorcha landed side by side in the middle of the village. That was also the moment when I saw … him. Sitting atop Sorcha’s red dragon skin, fierce and in full control, Brayden had his sword drawn looking like an avenging angel in his black and silver armor.

I wanted to run to him and never let go, but the other part of me wanted to beat the shit out of him for putting himself in danger as well as the others. Calista and Ryder were both riding on Drake’s back, using their magic to help fight off the sorcerer’s army as they searched around the area. I knew who they were searching for … me.

The sound of arrows whizzing through the air made my blood run cold. One after the other, hundreds of arrows stuck through Drake and Sorcha’s skin.

“No!” I screamed.