Page 127 of Shadows of Ruin

Hale’s grip on my arm loosened, the dagger at my neck wavering momentarily at the blast. I looked toward my friend—the man I thought had been my friend. Hale’s face slackened in disbelief as he met my gaze.

Andras approached my other side, but his expression held no fear. Despite Kade breaking through his defenses, he watched unimpressed. He reached down, yanking my hair back. Hale’s blade nicked the skin of my neck, and I winced.

“Look at them fight,” Andras whispered in my ear. I struggled against him, but the power of his grip along with Hale’s kept my fight in vain. “They come for you so eagerly. Especially him.”

Andras gripped my chin in his fingers, jerking my head slightly to the side to watch. He didn’t need to though. My gaze already rested on Kade, breaking through Fae as though they were nothing. Coming for me.

“I will have Casimir drain them one by one.” His nose brushed against my cheek, and I jerked away from him as best I could. Bile rose in my throat at his unwanted touch. “I will have you watch the life fade from their eyes as each of their magic becomes mine.”

“Get off of me,” I gritted out.

He laughed, continuing. “Kalliah looks as though she is about to collapse.” He turned my head toward her. “Ian will be one of the last. But Kade…” He inhaled, as if greedy for air itself. “Kade will be the grand finale. I won’t drain him completely; he wants him alive. But it will be fun to watch him suffer alongside you.”

“He will slaughter you like the pig you are,” I promised.

Andras clucked his tongue. “Pretty words, Princess. But they’re for nothing. Your friends have come to die because of you. You have never been strong enough to save them, and now you’ll see it firsthand.”

I elbowed Hale in the gut, sending him stumbling back. Andras was only caught off guard for a moment before he waved a hand at me. Searing pain ripped through my body,and a yellow gemstone on Andras’s robe flared as I sank to the ground.

“I cannot kill you yet.” He shook his head. “He has plans for you. But he never said I couldn’t play with you.”

He has plans for me? Who the fuck is “he”?

“Illiana.” Kade’s scream tore through the clearing, and like the coward he was, Andras pulled back.

“Get her,” Andras hissed at Hale.

Hale obeyed immediately, wrapping his arm around my chest, but I saw my opportunity. It was now or never to escape their clutches.

Grabbing Hale’s wrist, I pushed out and up and stomped on his foot, as I ducked beneath his arm, pushing him away from me. I yanked a blade from my boot, grateful to have thought to grab it when Hale had led me away wanting to talk. The white dagger I’d discovered in my parents’ grave rested on my thigh, but I left it alone for now, opting for the dagger I knew so well.

“You were my friend,” I fumed at Hale. “I trusted you. How could you?”

Hale let out a garbled laugh, but it was broken. A drop of blood rolled from his nose as his body jerked.

No.Those jerky movements…I recognized them now. The same way some of the dark ones moved.

Hale whipped his dagger around and bent his knees, readying himself for an attack. “When the darkness…calls…” More blood flowed from his left nostril. “You must answer.” The last of his words escaped from him forced and breathy.

He lunged toward me half-heartedly, and I blocked his attack with my dagger. He grunted as I easily lashed his own out of his hand, the momentum of my swing forcing it from his grasp.

Even with the battle raging around us, in this one moment, I saw a broken man, eyes shifting from dark to light. His shoulders sagged, and his arms hung limply by his side ashe panted. Straining against an invisible force I could not comprehend.

“Lana.” His voice tried to sound angry, but it fell short. Hale jerked his head to the side, eyes squeezed shut. He wiped the blood flowing freely from his nose with his arm. Streaks of crimson remained on his face. He leaned down, reaching for his weapon, and his arm shook.

An idea struck me. If this didn’t work, I would surely be dead by Hale’s hand. Watching him though, I knew this was not him. No matter how my heart ached at his betrayal, leading me into the hands of Andras—this was not the Hale I knew. Cautiously, I approached him. He turned, staring at me, but as that black darkness seeped into them, I closed the distance fully between us and placed a hand upon his cheek. A warmth filled my insides.

“I know this isn’t you. Come back to me, Hale. Be the man I knew in the gardens. At Millie’s Café,” I begged him, the battle sounding like it crept closer and closer. “You are stronger than the darkness within you.”

His gaze met mine, and he shouted, roaring loudly but not pulling away. I didn’t let go. A moment later, his eyes cleared, the black returning to their normal amber hue.

“Illiana,” he whispered, clutching the hand that held his cheek. “Lana?” he asked.

“I’m here,” I said, watching as his expression transform to a look of horror.

“I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” I answered too quickly, glancing to the side. “But I need you now. Kind of in the middle of a battle.”

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