Page 6 of Shadows of Ruin

Like how I could possibly be standing in a desolate,drained, mist-filled land where the border of Brookmere, a vast ocean, had been not a second before.

I turned to the infuriating male standing stiffly beside me, seething. “Mysthaven?” I repeated the name he’d said.

Slowly he turned to meet my gaze. Kade Blackthorn pursed his lips, his brow furrowed almost as ifhewere the one in pain. But I knew better.

Kade Blackthorn’s betrayal ran as deep as the rest of the lies I believed.

Storm cleared his throat. “Technically, Mysthaven lies on the other side of this lovely monstrosity.”

Kade ignored him. “Welcome to the void, Little Rebel. The space between our worlds. A space no one may enter without being blessed by our king.”

Storm, his loyal sidekick and friend to the betrayer, snorted.

“Ourking is dead thanks to you,” I seethed, spitting the words at him.

Kade’s stormy grey eyes held my own. “Your king may be dead, but my king is still very much alive.”

My mind reeled. There was another world. A place nobody knew about. Well, no one in Brookmere at least.

Another world with its own king.

“And I suppose you are one of the king’s chosen few then. Blessed with such powers to cross?” My eyes rolled in condemnation.

Kade’s lips twitched ever so slightly, like they always did when we fought, tipping his head as his only response.

My heart pounded in my chest. The ball of nerves in my stomach grew into something vile, forcing its way down to the soles of my feet and tips of my toes. My breath stuttered, panting in and out in short bursts.

For the first time, I’d allowed someone into my life. Someone new, beyond Ian and my few friends. Someonewhom I believed worthy. A man I thought would fight for me and our kingdom. But in an instant, the dream my heart had begun to craft brutally broke into a thousand pieces.

The life I’d dared to imagine, where Kade stood by my side as king, had deteriorated to nothing when I found him standing with a knife in my father’s chest.

And if that weren’t enough? He’d used his powerful shadow magic to finish the job by snapping the king’s neck as I held him in my arms, begging for him to live.

That was the man I thought I could trust with more than my secrets.

My heart.

He’d ripped it from me unapologetically.

I pushed away the painfully fresh memory. Shoved every last emotion into a small box deep within me and locked it. Swallowing hard, as if I could seal it away.

Wallowing would get me nowhere. Being out of my element wasn’t a luxury I could afford right now. So I cleared my throat, steadying myself to take in the void, as Kade called it. I had no other option, since the two of them allowed me to walk on my own but never let me out of their sights.

The land around me lay dead. Shriveled like powerful magic sucked every ounce of life from the soil.

A loud roar scattered the tiny pebbles across the ground as I braced myself, feeling the world shudder beneath my feet.

“What in the Fates was that?” I hissed.

Kade met my gaze, his normally grey eyes dark, black in a way I’d only seen a handful of times before. His jaw clenched as he kneeled before me, taking hold of my leg and running his hand upward until he gripped my thigh.

I jerked, trying to pull away. “What are you doing?”

“I hardly think this is the time to make things up to her,” Storm snorted.

I shot him a look.

“Bastard,” Kade muttered under his breath, yanking something from his pack.

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