Page 155 of Shadows of Ruin

I couldn’t lose Kade.

Kade, who stole my heart too easily. Kade who protected me, even if it killed a part of him to do it.

Mine.

He was mine.

A well inside me filled, brimming with fury, rage.

With light.

Get up.

Storm shoved a guard away from me, and I rolled onto my hands and knees.

You are Illiana Dresden.The voice inside of me spoke, and I didn’t know if it was my own, or something more.

You are stronger than the darkness within you. You are stronger than any darkness.

I shook, straining to get onto my knees. I would rise here to fight the king. To save Kade.

But I would also stand on my own feet, even in pain, because I was worthy. I may not have magic. I may not ever have magic like those clashing before me, but I was strong in my own right. Never again would I allow the desires of powerful men to cause me to feel weak. To feel less than.

“I am Illiana Dresden,” I whispered to myself, rising off one knee.

“You will die here today, son.” The king swung his blade back, lashing out with a flame toward Kade at the same time.

He couldn’t have him. The king, the darkness, nothing could have him. Because he was mine.

Kade Blackthorn loved me.

I was worthy of that love and so much more.

I screamed, standing fully again. The noise exploded from a place deep within me, finally breaking free. A place where darkness could not touch. The hairs on my arms rose as time slowed around me.

With guards holding him back, Kade looked at me and I knew. What I’d known in the dark recesses of my soul yet hadn’t spoken aloud.

I loved him. Kade Blackthorn was mine.

My mate.

The realization dawned on me, and I detonated from the inside out with power, with love, with a fury I didn’t dare deny any longer.

Withmagic.

Light burst out of me, and my screams for Kade echoed around us as it sliced through the guards.

The others shouted my name, but I knew my light, my power wouldn’t harm those I loved.

It would, however, devour any who hurt them.

Any who hurthim.

I stood on steady feet, unable to see anything but white around us. When the light faded, the guards in the room lay dead. Scattered around, their limbs at unnatural angles. No more entered through the doorway either.

Kade stood alone, unbound by anyone now, hovering over the king.

“I have waited a long time for this,” he said, his voice dripping with hate and malice. “This is for what you did to mymother.” He stabbed his sword into the king as his shadow sword formed in his other hand.

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