Page 79 of Prince of Ruin

“I’ma human,” I say, my voice even. “She may very well swallowmewhole before she even knows who I am. Is there any way to avoid this?”

“You’re her favorite.” Wolfsbane’s muscle jerks in their jaw. “She will recognize you in a heartbeat, even without your antlers, even in your human form. Spine Fae aren’t bound to the laws of the universe to harm none, like us Terra Witches are. Your goddess is Death. Harming others to get what you want is a form of worship to Mother Terra itself. When you demanded a hundred human sacrifices, Mother Terra immediately took a liking to you.”

I flinch. “I…I remember that,” I admit. It’s one of the many visions that haunts my nightmares. The Spine Fae wearing skull masks. The chanting. The screaming of innocent victims. One-hundred of them.

“I tried to talk some sense into you that night.” Tarsus’ voice is soft, their silver eyes burning with intensity. “I tried to talk some sense into you, but that only made you paranoid ofme. Since Abaddon was your number one supporter, you clung to him.” They blink. And something seems to break in their eyes. Some invisible wall they’d built around their heart. Because of me.

“I’m sorry.” Without thinking, I reach across the table and cover their hand with mine. They tense, but don’t pull away. To my utter shock, they curl their fingers around mine and give them a gentle squeeze. The small gesture speaks volumes about how far we’ve come in such a short time.

“And no one can stop her, except me?” I ask, looking back at Wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane shrugs and lifts their chalice to their lips, draining the goblet. “I tried. Mother Terra demanded I pay my loyalty in Aden’s blood.”

I flinch. “Why Aden, specifically?”

Wolf swallows and sets their empty chalice down. “Aden is the one who made me see humans as equals. Made me care for them.” They look at Aden, their black eyes softening. “I never cared much forhumans, and sacrifices were easy for me. Once Mother Terra sensed my growing affection for all humans, especially Aden, she deemed me soft and unworthy.”

I blink. “And you think she’ll deem me stronger than you?Worthierthan you?” I choke out a laugh and gesture angrily with my four-fingered hand. “In case you all forgot, Iama human!”

“Yes,” Hemlock says. “But it’s your choice. No one is making you do this.”

My choice. It’s always been my choice.

Go into the volcano. Convince Mother Terra to calm her temper and cease her demands for human sacrifices. I’ll most likely die in the process, but it doesn’t look like I have much of an option. It’s either me…or Aden. And I’ll never be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try to talk some sense into Mother Terra.

My four-fingered fists clench and unclench under the table. I think of Dad at home, risking his life every day to fight the demonic bat-folk. Apparently, they only came to our home to seek me out for help. I’m here now. After I help everyone on the continent, the bats will stop seeking me out. Aden will be safe. And these folks will hopefully let me go home.

Negotiating with Mother Terra is the only way I’ll get to live the peaceful human life that I didn’t even know I wanted.

I’ll do this for Dad. I’ll do it for Aden—because there’s no way in fucking hell I’m letting anyone toss him into the volcano. And I guess…I guess I’m doing it for Tarsus too. No matter how cruel they were to me, I get that I was ten times worse to them in the past. It’s understandable why they don’t trust me.

I look at them, squeeze their hand that’s still clutched in mine. I’m doing this for them, too.

Standing from my chair, I look at Wolfsbane. “What are we waiting for? Lead the way, Sovereign.”

~*~

When I first stepped into the volcano over a week ago, everything was foreign to me. I had no recollection of any part of my past life—at least not until I picked up my father’s gold-encrusted skull. That was the first moment I felt any sense of my past self. But as I walk through the damp cavernous halls now, the sulfur hanging heavy in the air, I see flashes in my memory, flashes of something that could only be my past, as if the silent, steady walls pressing in on me dredge up the memories.

I remember walking these inky black halls of the cavern as a child, my father, holding a large torch while leading the procession of bone witches, priests, guards, and one bound human, ready to be tossed intothe fiery pits. I remember how everyone in the procession wore skulls of strange creatures as masks, how they used bones as mallets upon their drums—which were fashioned from the stretched, dried skin of their enemies.

In my memory, I see myself as a child and my father as the king. But the deeper we travel into the cavern, my memory shifts. I’m the one wearing the Crown of Teeth, my antlers reaching through the ringlet toward the black cavernous ceiling. I’m the one holding the fiery torch, leading the procession. And it’s not one, but one-hundred humans bound together by shredded rope as they’re led to their deadly fates in the heart of the volcano.

I see flashes of Tarsus racing in, once we’d arrived at the sacrificial altar, the pained look in their eyes, the way they shouted at me that this was not necessary. I remember being hurt by them, because everything I was doing was forthem. It was so we could be together without fear of my father or fear of the Solar Empire taking over. I wanted to rule with Tarsus, but all Tarsus could think about were these pathetic humans who didn’t even have a place in our realm.

Abaddon marched beside me, a steady wall of support. My ally. He swore to fight with me if the Solar Sovereign, Elderberry, ever attacked. He’s the one who ordered his bat warriors to gather the hundredhumans and bring them here for the sacrifice—including several humans from my own palace. The older ones. The ones who weren’t as aesthetically pleasing as the younger. I flinch, thinking of Marcus. Of his parents who I slaughtered.

I stood at the ledge over the lake of lava, uttering my prayers to Mother Terra, preparing to shove the first human in, when Tarsus—realizing I wouldn’t listen to them—shovedmein.

The fear that clutched my throat as I fell to my death was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. But stronger than that fear was fury that my lover chose the lives of mortals over me—his sovereign.

Thank the gods, Abaddon swooped down and rescued me just before I hit the lava, but not before burns from the heat seared my skin. I had Tarsus bound and taken back to the palace to be dealt with later, and then I threw every single human into the fiery lake below.

And I enjoyed every moment of it.

“You know, I’m honestly not sure whether to buy this little act of yours or not.” Wolfsbane’s voice cuts into my memories as we venture deeper into the heart of the grumbling mountain. I shudder as Ash falls in step on my other side, a silent, predatory presence that I honestly could do without in this dark, cold cave.

“It’s not an act,” I say. “And I think you know that.”

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