The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)(94)
“I’m not in love with him. I’ve known him less than three weeks.” Lorelai crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Trugg even as warmth heated her cheeks. “But you’re right. I found his desperate struggle not to kill me very charming. The unbearable agony he was in and the constant fear that he was failing Eldr just added to the allure.”
Trugg opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“Are we done being ridiculous?” Lorelai asked and then turned to include the other six Eldrians in her glare. “Kol thinks all he is to the outside world is a charming daredevil, but you and I know better, don’t we? We see his incredible inner strength. His ability to put others first even at great cost to himself. We understand the depth of his loyalty and love. That’s why you followed him to Ravenspire in the first place. You’re willing to die for him, and so am I.”
The Eldrians stared at her in wide-eyed silence.
“And another thing.” She raised her finger and pointed it first at Jyn who seemed to vehemently hate her for the power in her blood and then swept her arm to include them all. “My name is Lorelai, not mardushka. I don’t want to hear another word against my magic. Magic is an impartial force that obeys the heart of the one who wields it. If I wanted to harm Eldr, I wouldn’t have honored my promise to Kol and sent a barrier between the ogres and your people. You should be grateful that I’m a mardushka, because you are going up against the most powerful woman who ever came out of Morcant, and the strength of my heart is the only thing standing between you and total destruction.”
Trugg caught her eye, and a fierce smile cracked his face. “You’d make an excellent Draconi warrior.”
“I’m an excellent warrior, period. Now, how much distance do you have to keep between you and Kol to avoid triggering the spell in his collar?”
“Queen Irina didn’t say, but we don’t dare get too close,” the girl who’d been the white dragon said as she held out her hand for Lorelai to shake. “I’m Mik. It’s nice to meet you.”
Lorelai shook her hand and considered the problem. The castle would have magical traps set around it. Lorelai shuddered at the thought of more statues, more spiders, but whatever Irina had waiting for them, it was nothing compared to what Lorelai was going to do to the false queen.
Kol would be somewhere in the castle itself, but that would give the Eldrians room to fly to castle grounds and fight off whatever traps Irina had set so that Lorelai could get inside and rescue Gabril and Kol. Irina thought she’d isolated her enemies. She wouldn’t be expecting them to launch a coordinated attack.
Lorelai looked at the Eldrians and lifted her chin. “Listen carefully. This is what we’re going to do.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
THEY APPROACHED THE castle from the south. Lorelai rode Mik and had to shield her eyes as the late afternoon sun glinted against Mik’s white scales like brilliant sparks of fire. The Eldrians flew low to the ground, hugging the hills that marked the land south of the capital to make it harder for the castle guards to see them in time to sound a warning.
She’d sent Sasha ahead to scout so that the dragons would know where to fly, where to land. She couldn’t afford for them to fail their part of the mission. They were her way past Irina’s defenses—defenses surely designed to drain Lorelai’s power before her showdown with the queen.
She’d stopped reaching for Kol’s thoughts before discussing her plan with the Eldrians. He wasn’t there. She’d found nothing but darkness, anguish, and Irina’s cold, cruel voice mocking her attempts to find the Kol she knew and bring him back to her. It was better to ignore the connection and keep her thoughts to herself until the last possible moment.
Like the Eldrians, Lorelai couldn’t afford to fail her part of the mission.
As they flew closer and closer to the castle, Lorelai drew deep breaths and forced her fear into a corner of her mind. She wasn’t sure if she could defeat this newly powerful Irina. She wasn’t sure if she could save those she cared about. If she could save Ravenspire.
But she didn’t need to know the outcome to be sure of her heart.
She was the crown princess of Ravenspire, a powerful mardushka of Morcant, and she would right the wrongs against her people or she would die trying.
As the graceful spires of Ravenspire’s castle loomed on the horizon, Lorelai’s pulse raced, and her magic thrummed through her blood to gather in her palms where she held what she hoped would be the key to getting the dragons safely past Irina’s defenses and into the castle grounds. The Eldrians crested the final rise, and then the castle with its gray stone turrets, its etched glass windows, and its sprawling gardens lay before them.
Trugg turned his huge black head and gave Lorelai a look that asked “Are you ready?”
She nodded and raised her hands. Irina would have traps set. Shields up. Unnatural things like the snake-vine cage in Nordenberg created from her magic.
Lorelai had a plan she hoped would work. Every Eldrian had willingly given her a scale to hold, even though Lorelai could see that ripping a scale from their bodies had hurt. Through their scales, she could feel the fierceness of their hearts that were willing to serve her magic when she called upon them. She hoped that holding the scales would mean she didn’t have to take their fire into her own body for her magic to use it.