Page 119 of Shade of Ruin

His formality gives her pause, and I turn back to Hazel to see her stifling a wide grin. “Is heyourPrince?” she whispers.

And I can’t help it. “I don’t know yet. Maybe.”

Her eyes open wider than I can remember, excitement all over her face, and she jumps out of her chair. “I almost forgot. Maeve, when you… when I got hurt, no one wanted to talk to me. They said I was cursed, and I didn’t have anything to do. No one to talk to except my parents. Everyone just pushed me away.”

She takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. “Do you remember when Vesta tried to teach us how to hunt? Mother ended that quickly enough, but I didn’t forget how to do it. I was always good at my studies, and I paid attention when she was teaching us even if I’d rather have been home. Well, I hunted, Maeve, andI made you something. I knew you’d come home, and I wanted… I wanted to say sorry for the things I said about you.”

Now it’s my turn to be surprised. She made me something? She hunted? Hazel’s never wanted to be in the forest before. Even when we were children, Vesta had to get onto her constantly because she was always so scared.

I guess that knowing that you’re going to die in a year is enough to convince you to face those fears.

“Just stay here. Let me go get them,” she says. Without waiting for me to respond, she runs out of the sitting room and out of the townhouse, leaving me and Cole with Aunt Prudence.

I stand up, my eyes drifting to the sludge on the floor. Cole’s eyes do the same, and without a second thought, he raises his hand, and it bursts into flame. I know that before this, I’d be worried he’d catch the whole townhouse on fire, but now I know what control is. There won’t even be singe marks on the floor when he’s done. Aunt Prudence, on the other hand, shrieks.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “The fire won’t catch on anything, and I don’t think you want to touch that sludge to clean it up.”

The fire burns itself out, and nothing’s left but a pile of ash, several pieces floating into the air before falling back to the ground. “How has she been?” I ask Prudence.

Prudence doesn’t have to question who I’m talking about. “She’s been better than I expected.” Without giving me a chance to respond, she says, “Thank you. I’d lost hope that my daughter would survive. I’d thought… I’d thought we’d be burying her this time next year. She’s grown stranger as the weeks have passed. Almost like you.”

Prudence purses her lips. “You’re like your mother now, aren’t you?”

I nod my head. “And unlike her at the same time. Prudence, it might be time that you and Trevor and Hazel moved to the city. There’s going to be a war, and it may never touch places likeBlackgrove, but it might. If it does, you’ll die. There’s nothing that anyone in town can do to protect you.”

Then I realize something. If my father had a House of Earth bloodline, then Uncle Trevor does too. And Hazel does, too. They, like my father, never had enough Immortal blood to power the gifts that bloodline gives while I had my mother’s power. What would have happened if Hazel had been brought to the Keep of Flame today? Would she be the one wearing the Crown?

Aunt Prudence looks at the ground. “Even here, we’ve heard about strange things happening. Trevor and I have talked. He spent some time at the Court in Stormhaven. We could go back.”

“That’s probably for the best. Hazel would enjoy being in the midst of everything. The balls and all the boys. I’m sure that she’d feel right at home there.”

Prudence shakes her head. “No, it’s not like that. If it were, we’d have gone there a long time ago. Trevor isn’t important there. No one gives him the time of day in the big city. We may be rich for Blackgrove, but we’re barely better than cobblers in Stormhaven.”

“Then go be cobblers in Stormhaven, Prudence. If you stay here, you’ll probably be rich and dead.” I smile at her and recognize just how much things have changed since I left. I don’t particularly like my Aunt Prudence, but there’s no hatred for her.

If I were the same person I was when I left Blackgrove, I would have forced her or threatened her with violence. Instead, I raise my hand and the shadows that slowly move around me explode outward, clinging to every surface and blotting out the light of the world. “Prudence,” I say slowly. “I am not afraid of very many things, but I’m afraid of the people that are going to war. Go to Stormhaven. If you won’t, then I’ll take Hazel there and make sure she’s safe.”

Prudence looks around at the shadows coating the walls and windows and shivers. Then she nods. “We’ll go.”

I take a deep breath, and the shadows dissipate. It’s only now that I realize that it’s completely silent. Before, I’d been talking to Prudence, but now… Now, everything is silent. Not just in the house, either.

I glance at Cole, and his eyes open wide. Immediately, I’m running. I throw the door open and realize just how big of a mistake we’d made. The Nothing is everywhere. White mists slowly twist and curl around the clearing that Aunt Prudence’s house sits in.

Cole’s beside me in a second, and I pause. I can’t make the same mistake I made the last time. At least not until I see something that wouldn’t ever be laying on the ground. A pair of gloves made from rabbit skins. My heart skips a beat at the sight of them. That has to be what Hazel wanted to show me. I close my eyes, and instead of talking to Cole, I focus on the world, on the scents.

My heart wants to race, to panic and become angry, but that’s the wrong emotion. Instead, I think of my hand on a tree trunk as I’m hunting, but this time, it’s Hazel who’s my prey. I know where she is. Just beyond the mists. Everything in me says that she’s there, and she’s not moving.

No. No. I can’t breathe. I can’t accept that my cousin is dead; lost to the Nothing. After everything. I fall to my knees, but Cole’s already beside me, picking me up. “Go get my friends from Maeve’s room,” he growls at Prudence, but I ignore him. I don’t care about anything at this point.

I’d been on the verge of giving into the darkness before I came here. My entire life has been a lie. Like Cole said, I’ve become a tool. A tool to save the world, but a tool, regardless. I’d almost accepted that. I’d almost believed that I could be like Cole, but I needed to protect Hazel first.

Now… now she’s dead.

After all of this, after everything, the only person who has always been an honest friend is dead, and I’m left with nothing that matters anymore. Everything that has ever meant anything in my life is either a lie or gone.

And there is nothing I can do to fix it.

Chapter 50

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