Page 130 of Shadows of Ruin

Corbin placed a hand on my shoulder as he walked past me. “I’ll take care of it.”

I looked away from him, finally seeing Ian jogging toward me. “Fuck, Lan, you’re all right?”

I buried my face in his neck and cried. I cried for Hale, forthe boy who loved me enough to try to take on the darkness alone. And for the long journey we had ahead.

Kade did not shy away from keeping us moving. “Get your weapons and return to camp. We need to gather our things and make our way to The Knotted Willow as quickly as possible.”

Each member of our group acknowledged the command and picked up extra weapons discarded across the ground. As I bent down to pick up a dagger from the hand of a dark one, I noticed a symbol on his arm. A symbol I had seen before on Andras and on Hale.

“What do you know of these marks?” I asked Kade.

He exchanged a glance with Storm before he responded, “We aren’t quite sure. We haven’t figured out exactly what they mean, but we noticed them on the dark ones in Brookmere. We tried interrogating them previously, but they refused to say what it meant.”

“As far as we can tell,” Storm said, “it seems to be on those of the dark ones who are less frenzied. Less crazed.”

“Like a branding?” Ian asked.

“Andras has one,” I told them. “I saw it in the palace during the last trial. Hale had one too. He told me he took on the darkness believing he could help from the inside.” I closed my eyes, thinking of how he had clutched my hand in his final moments. “He said the marks show those who accepted the darkness willingly. Those without the marks are fighting it.”

Storm breathed a heavy sigh. “So, they’re not crazed, they’re battling something inside of them.”

“But from who?” I whispered.

“We will add it to the growing list of things to figure out,” Ian said. “For now, we should go. Kalliah needs to see a healer, or at the very least needs to get off her ankle. Let’s go somewhere safe.”

I moved toward Kalliah, who favored her right leg, her leftankle already swollen, and let her wrap her arm around my shoulder.

Jax slid next to Kalliah’s other side and picked her up in his arms. “I’ve got this.” He winked at me.

“I told you I’m not interested,” Kalliah muttered.

“No, but I’d rather not die tonight, waiting around here for the cackling wannabe king to return and find another way to surprise us.” Jax snorted. “So let’s go.”

I turned to face the battlefield once more, vowing to myself to avenge the death of yet another Fae lost to this monster.

Facing the western sky, the white dagger in my hand heated. I hadn’t set it down, even as I gathered the other weapons. I had no idea what had happened when I used it against the dark one, or what happened to the man after.

I stepped forward, the heat growing, and the dagger glowed in response. “What are you for?” I whispered to it, as though it would provide an answer. I knew this dagger was important. What it meant, I wasn’t sure, but as we trekked north back toward camp, the glow of the dagger dimmed. As did the heat.

The blade called to me, a song begging to be sung. I just had to figure out what it called me toward, and what it meant for us in the war we had been thrust into.

Chapter 37

Lana

Kade’s shadows caressed my arms as we rode hard toward The Knotted Willow.

They didn’t leave my side the entire ride. The way Kade had acted once he’d reached me during the fight, I couldn’t be sure they would leave me again until this war ended. One way or another.

When I might have demanded space before, the words died before ever becoming strong enough to say. I accepted knowing I needed their comfort too.

Everyone around me was dying.

I glanced over my shoulder at the small group of people I loved most in the entire world. Though Leif’s absence hurt, I couldn’t help but wonder if he remained the safest because he was farther away from me. Everyone here was at risk of being used. Being destroyed.

Yet I believed if I acknowledged out loud what Kade meant to me, the focus of all our enemies would hone in on him. The losses we suffered broke me. But if I lost him? It would destroy me forever.

Everyone rode in silence. Hale’s loss, along with witnessing the power Andras wielded and the way he so carelessly tookthe lives of his own followers without the blink of an eye, lingered among us. We all needed rest. A small reprieve. Even though I feared none of us would feel safe enough to allow ourselves that moment.

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