Page 126 of Shadows of Ruin

He grinned in response. “Idle threats don’t look good on you. I was just going to take her and leave, but it would be so much more entertaining to watch you fight my dark ones. You can watch while I play with her.”

I slammed a fist against the barrier with a force that shook the ground. An inky shadow spilled from my fingers, and I smirked at the man in front of me. “Looks like your poison is wearing thin.”

“It won’t matter,” he taunted. “Attack,” he shouted at the dark ones behind him.

On his command, they raced forward, having no troublegetting through the shield from their side. They descended on us. Swords clashed and clanged, but my sight remained trained on Andras except for the brief moments I took to ensure Hale hadn’t hurt Lana.

He stood there, arm shaking so badly I could see it from here. Lana’s concentration focused solely on the man she called a friend at her side.

I needed her to look at me. Just once. Darkness tapped at my mind, knowing how easily I would let it seep into me if it promised her safety.

Extending my arm, I called forth my blade of shadows and sliced at the barrier. I heard it before I saw it. A tiny crack. A feral smile overtook me as I watched Andras’s glee falter.

“Casimir, reinforce the shield,” Andras bellowed.

Hale twitched next to where Andras stood, his dagger lowering to his side. Lana made a move to run toward me, but Andras grabbed Hale’s shoulder. “Keep her here at any cost.”

Casimir threw his arms to the side, grabbing two soldiers who collapsed momentarily under his touch. Then two more, until strands of visible magic coiled around him. He touched Andras next, the magic seeping into the ring, and the shield pulsed.

The triumphant smirk returned.

“Do you think there is any magic in this kingdom that would keep me from her?” I yelled, hitting the shield again. “You will never have her again.”

“Kade!” Lana yelled, and I saw Hale tug her back to Andras’s side by her fucking hair.

The control I barely held on to snapped. A darkness I had never given into willingly seeped through my shadows, curling around them inside of me. The fight they normally put up against this darker magic evaporated, as even they welcomed the fresh new power into them. Fusing with them.

All for her.

Illiana Dresden was mine. No Fae in this Fates-damned world would keep her from me, especially not a conniving coward like Andras.

A familiar heat flared at my back, and I pulled my attention away from Andras and Lana for the first time since arriving. My gaze collided with Storm’s.

“I’m here,” he yelled over the fight with the dark ones. He knew.

He noticed, as he always did, the warning signs of danger those few moments before chaos spilled from me. He would protect the others.

I sliced my shadow blade down in one final stroke, opening another crack in Andras’s shield.

Then I reached for the power nestled inside of me. I unleashed my magic alongside the darkness I always feared. Freely. Unhindered.

And let myself erupt.

Chapter 36

Lana

“No, Kade!” I shouted, desperate for my cries to reach him.

Unlikely given the battle around us, and whatever shield Andras had in place, but I had to try.

Storm yelled to the others, flinging his body toward Ian, and created a circle of fire around them all as darkness exploded from Kade’s body. The blast tore through the clearing even stronger than it had when we had first crossed into Mysthaven. A deafening roar accompanied the darkness surrounding us, and the barrier cracked.

The darkness dissipated and every single dark one on the opposite side of the shield lay lifeless on the ground. I held my breath, searching for my friends.

Storm’s fire receded, revealing that they’d remained safe.

Kade ran forward toward the shouts, engaging the new wave of dark ones ready to pounce through Andras’s broken shield. He fought with ferocity, a wildness, unlike any other fight we’d previously encountered.

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