Page 41 of Shade of Ruin

Darian ends his tirade with a huff, and as he crosses his arms, Cole sighs. It’s a sound I’ve grown to know very well. That’s Cole’s grunt of contentment. Usually when I stopped talking. I’mglad to find that he uses it on other people, and I’m not the only person who annoys him.

Everyone is quiet for a few minutes before Lee starts in. “We should get horses, Cole. Maybe we can’t fly, but we can ride.”

“And where would we get those horses, Lee?” he asks. “There are no villages between Aerwyn and Draenyth because we’re not really on a road.”

And I can’t help it. I really can’t. “Why don’t you and Darianbecomehorses? That’s a thing, right?” Cole’s eyes are open wide as he stops walking and turns toward me. I don’t let his look stop me, though. “You don’t have to turn into horses, but I’m sure you could become more like them. Then Cole and I can ride on you two. It doesn’t make sense for us all to have to walk when Cole and I could just ride.”

Cole blinks a few times and then starts laughing. Not a little chuckle. Full-bellied laughter that makes him sit down so he doesn’t fall over. Even Lee and Darian look confused. Lee whispers, “I think you broke him, Maeve.”

Flames flicker in the air around him, something that I’ve come to accept as almost normal.

“Definitely,” Darian agrees. The flames get larger and more intense. We have to back away from Cole as they singe the rock I was sitting on.

“I was just trying to make a joke,” I whisper back. Cole just keeps laughing, and I’m getting a little concerned. The flames become constant in a sphere around him. Heatwaves roll off them to where Lee and Darian are looking worried. I’ve never seen him create flames like this. It’s almost… uncontrolled.

“Are you okay?” Lee asks. “It was funny, but notthatfunny.”

Cole just keeps laughing.

I glance at the ball of flame surrounding our supposed leader and go sit down on a rock. “Well, we can just take a little break. It must be hard to purposefully keep any kind of happiness lockeddown like that. Eventually, the chain snaps, and you just have to let the emotions happen, right?”

Lee and Darian look at me with eyes wide open. Then they look at Cole, whose flames are finally beginning to fade. “That’s it, isn’t it,” Darian says quietly, and the laughter evaporates, as well as the flames. “You’re losing hold on your emotions. How often has this happened?”

Cole shakes his head as he takes big, deep breaths to gain some control over himself. “Only once. Just… just the once.”

“I guess that’s twice now,” Lee says from beside Darian. “Twice. Since meeting Maeve?”

Cole looks up at Lee from his spot on the ground, and his eyes tell her exactly what she wants to know. It was when he was in the tree with me he lost control. When he’d nearly fallen off a branch that I could have walked on with ease. He’s lost control twicebecauseof me. Not just since he met me.

“Twice,” he agrees, not mentioning the second part. Darian and Lee turn to each other, and it’s almost like they’re talking without words. Twin speak. Typical.

Cole and I both just watch them staring at each other, and then Darian reaches out to Cole. “Come on. Let’s get back to walking. We’ve got a lot of miles to go.”

This time, when we walk, all of us are silent. I have no idea what happened, but it wasn’t good.

Interlude 2

Twenty-eight years ago

The High Fae male is broken. Powerless and unable to do anything about it. The power of the Thrones was fading, but no one seemed to notice it, least of all the kings of the Great Houses.

The Houses of Earth and Shadow were broken. He had seen the severed head of King Roderic of the House of Earth. Brenna of the House of Shadows was rumored to be dead, but he had not seen her body with his own eyes, and that woman had more mastery of the powers of Shadow than anyone in memory. If there was a single individual that could trick and evade half of the High Fae, it was her.

Which is why it doesn’t surprise him when she appears to him, far from any courts. He has been hiding in a village beyond the eye of the High Fae, living as a human would, yet the Lady of the House of Shadows is waiting for him in his room in the village’s inn.

A simple village with a simple inn with simple rooms. A small window against the wall lets in the moonlight, coating the female in silver wherever her shadows don’t stick. Wooden floors, walls,and ceiling have been kept clean, and the bed is reasonably clean as well.

And Brenna of the Shadows doesn’t fit in this space. Long black hair. Thin as a wisp. Dark eyes that hold so much hidden knowledge that the male questions whether there’s anything she doesn’t know.

She is one of the most beautiful females in the world. She’s always been poised and regal, the portrait of a Lady of the House of Shadows. Absolutely unfazed by anything.

Now, he doesn’t see her regalness. She looks worn down. Exhausted. It’s been two years since she’d been forced into hiding. Two years of continuous secrecy.

He says nothing when he sees her. Sitting on the single chair in his room, she stares at him for several moments before speaking, and he doesn’t interrupt her. She’s here for a reason, and he’s patient enough to let her tell him. Her long, flowing black dress looks as though it was made from shadows spun into silk. Shiny and so dark that it seems to draw in the light. Not even spellstones could create that fabric, and for a moment, the male questions if he’s ever seen anything as beautiful.

“I’ve found a way to fix things,” she says slowly. Her voice is so soft that if he wasn’t watching her mouth move, he’d swear a breeze was speaking to him.

“Fix things? You mean reclaim the Shadowed Throne?”

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