Page 37 of Prince of Ruin

I don’t know why I stand in stupid fascination as the kid tears off the glove and once again reaches for their dagger. I guess I want to give them a fair chance. But as I watch their hand wrap around the hilt—I notice the pinky missing from their right hand. Not only that, I realize that the dagger they’re reaching for is made of obsidian.

No.

No fucking way.

This isn’t some clumsy kid, this is the Prince of Ruin, the one meant to end me, and they’ve just pulled the wool over my eyes. I gave them a fucking advantage, completely fooled by their act.

Both terror and fury flood through me, rage clutching my throat in its skeletal fingers. Now. Now is my opportunity to do what I should have done twenty-three years ago.

I take one more step forward, reach out, and yank the helmet off the wyvern rider, revealing hot pink hair and a pair of gray eyes staring at me from behind black-rimmed glasses that are so out of place in this realm.

A laugh of shock escapes me.

“Youagain,” I seethe as my eyes meet Clavicle’s. I tilt my head and offer my coldest smile, hoping he doesn’t sense the utter terror in my voice. “You swore you wouldn’t return.”

Dropping his dagger like the fucking idiot he is, he clumsily scrambles to his feet while shoving his glasses up the bridge of his nose. God, he’s like a colt with oversized feet. A fae prince trapped in a human body, still unsure how to use it even after twenty years.I have to say, this act of his is almost convincing, but I know the real Clavicle is in there, just waiting for me to turn my back so he can drive that obsidian dagger through it.

“I see you lost your pinky,” I sneer. “Lying bastard.”

“I…I…”

Gods, just the sound of his voice makes my heart palpitate in my chest. Before yesterday, it’d been too long since I’d seen him, heard his voice, felt his lips pressed against mine—

“No,” I snap. “No excuses.” I lift my sword. “I swore that if you returned, I’d kill you.” I offer a lethal grin. “I regretted letting you go at the faire, but now I’ll finally get what’s mine.”

He stumbles back from me, once again landing on his ass. Is he trying to look vulnerable so I’ll feel sorry for him, or is his human body truly that weak? Even Aden is able to fight in his human body. Clavicle…isn’t even putting up a fight. He scoots away from me like a coward, one hand blocking his face in surrender, his other hand searching the grass for—

Whack. Something hard hits my head, momentarily stunning me. I take a startled step back. Fucking bastard! He threw a rock at my goddamn head!

“You sneaky little rat!” I take three swift steps toward him. “Let’s finish this once and for all.”

Reaching down, I wrap my hand around his slender throat and lift him to his feet. He winces as I squeeze his air pipe. I can feel his pulse throbbing in his carotid as I assess where to slice his throat, and whether I want his death to be swift, or if I want him to bleed out slowly.

His gray eyes dart to the sword as I press the blade against his throat. “No—no—please—”

I hesitate. Because even as I hold this traitor before me, I can’t stand the thought of losing him forever. Forgood. At least when he was a human, there was always a chance of seeing him. I could sneak to the human realms and watch him from afar. I still had access to him. But the truth is, I already lost him. That day he nearly threw me into the lava pit with the humans, I knew he was gone.

“Goodbye, Brother.” I press the blade of my sword to his throat. He clenches his eyes shut, not even putting up a fight as I pierce his skin.

“STOP!” The only voice that could ever command me to do anything echoes through the valley, standing out among the shouts of war. Aden is stepping through the seam that’s opened up behind me, Ash following close behind.

Gods-dammit. Ash knows better than to bring him to the battlefield. My heart sinks into my gut as my eyes dart around to the bats, hoping to every god in the world that they don’t notice him. He can’t be here.This entire battle is because the bats want him. As soon as the enemy notices him, he’s dead. They’ll grab him and fly off.

“Go home!” The scream rips from my throat, desperate and choking on a sob before I cast a glare at Ash. She sizes me up with those bright red eyes and folds her slender arms over her chest.

“Clavicle is the only one who can stop this madness, Tarsus,” Aden snaps, his fiery green eyes blazing. “And you know it.”

My heart is palpitating in my chest as I tear my eyes from Aden and glare at the Prince of Ruin struggling before me, uselessly trying to pry my fingers off his throat.

“We need to rid ourselves of him, Aden.”

“If you get rid of the one person who could talk to Mother Terra, then I will have no choice but to throw myself into the volcano to spare this world.”

My back tenses, my chest tightening until it’s getting hard to breathe, and I look at Aden. “You wouldn’t.”

“It’s why I came.” His eyes are pleading, tears blurring that stark green against the brown landscape. “I was going to turn myself over to the bats before there could be anymore bloodshed.” His eyes dart to Clavicle. “But…he’s here. And since he broke his swear, we can take him as a prisoner until he agrees to be compliant.”

I shouldn’t hesitate to kill the one person who could destroy everything we’ve fought for—for two decades—but I also know Aden is right. If there’s anyone who could stop the volcano from ending us, apart from Aden being thrown into the volcano, it’s this poor excuse of a king before me.

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