Page 17 of Shadows of Ruin

“Stop,” she commanded. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“His focus was on protecting the kingdom,” I pressed. “If they had obtained his magic in his weakened state, even briefly?—”

“My father would never have asked for death over facing an enemy.” Her body shook, and I didn’t know if it was from anger or grief. “You make him sound cowardly.”

“Cowardly?” I sighed. “No, he may be the bravest man I’ve ever met.”

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, now shivering in front of me. My shadows thickened where they held her legs, like they were trying to pour into her somehow.

I didn’t think there was anything left to break inside of me, yet my chest tightened with anguish.

"I can’t imagine how hard this is, but you have to understand. You have no idea how sorry I am. I wish I could take it back. I wish there had been another way, another moment to think.”

“But there’s not. Because you murdered him in my arms,” she shouted, breaking the quiet around us, her voice cracking on the final word.

She let out a painful sob before she shoved her elbow into my stomach. Wheezing, I gripped her thigh, falling forward.

Lana huffed. “This is only the beginning of the pain I plan to inflict on you, Kade Blackthorn.” She briskly wiped her hand across her cheek, whisking away the tears there. “Mark my words.”

“Stopping here for the night!” Raya shouted, halting the line of horses.

Lana jumped from the horse without hesitation before I could say anything more. Jax grabbed the bags mounted to the animals containing our supplies and threw one to Lana.Inclining his head, he and Lana left the horses to set up the tents.

Quickly and quietly, we worked to establish our temporary campground for the evening. Lana observed every interaction with a keen eye, no doubt looking for any possible piece of information to hold against us later.

I stood outside my now finished tent, unable to stop studying her. Her entire demeanor exuded wariness. Her discomfort tugged at something deep within. Something I’d long since believed dead. The spark Lana elicited from me had been life-altering, reforming my blackened heart around something else.Her.

Being back here in this loathsome kingdom, closer tohim, threatened to disrupt the pieces of me that had slowly begun mending during my time in Brookmere. Though I could handle guilt and doing things I loathed here, watching Lana look like a prisoner, at my hands no less, wasn’t something I could stomach.

She looked at the tent to her right as Raya finished putting up the one they would share. Her body tensed before she shifted, rubbing her arms and staring at the small space. Lana hadn’t been alone since the travesty of the final trial, and I could only imagine some time to herself would be helpful. Even necessary. At some point she had to grieve.

As if she were a bloody razorven, I approached slowly. “Here, take mine,” I said, waving my hand behind me toward my tent. She needed this space. I couldn’t let her go home, but I could try to give her a reprieve from being surrounded by strangers. “Jax and I can share a tent for the evening. But do not try to escape. It’s not safe.”

Jax approached holding two pieces of bread in his hands. His gaze darted between the two of us, searching for something in that obnoxious way he usually did, always seeing more than any of us wanted.

Lana nodded silently and strode toward the entrance.

“Great, I get to room with His Moodiness—hey!” Jax yelped as Lana swiped a hunk of bread from his hand before escaping to the privacy of my tent.

She jerked the tent flaps closed. An inky tendril of shadow crawled along the ground toward the tent, hovering outside. My shadows weren’t burdened with a fear of her rejection. Perhaps I could feed from their confidence and pray to the Fates she would forgive me one day.

I yanked at the magic, willing it to return, but it failed me. Instead, they stretched farther from me as I gave up and moved to the campfire Storm had created. Part of me screamed to stay with the shadows and say something to her, but the guilt threatening to overtake me wouldn’t help.

I needed to focus. Away from Lana and this ache inside of me.

“Do you have spare clothes?” I asked Raya. “A cloak, something. She’s not dressed for traveling. We had to leave Brookmere unexpectedly.”

Raya narrowed her gaze at me, her lip curling, but stormed off, retrieving a dark cloak and throwing it in Lana's tent before she returned.

Inhaling deeply, a small moment of relief settled into my bones as I sat before the fire. I was finally back with my friends. The few I could trust implicitly. While I knew we each had stories to tell, I savored this one moment of normalcy before the chaos of fulfilling the prophecy continued.

Slowly, each of my friends gathered, reunited again for the first time in months.

A soft snore filled the air, reaching us from Lana’s tent as we sat in silence, chewing the days-old bread, until Jax finally broke the quiet.

“So, brother, are we going to talk about the princess snoring in your tent, or shall she remain yet another mystery to solve?”

Storm chuckled from across the fire.

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