Page 26 of Shadows of Ruin

After a few moments of continued silence, I gave up, choosing instead to give in to the dreamlike state completely and let my body mend itself. Rest would trigger my magic to heal. Maria would have less to worry about when she arrived.

No one was in my head. Even accepting that fact, it didn’t stop me from whispering into the recesses of my mind.

“Tell Lana I’ll find her.”

Chapter 8

Lana

“You!” A rage-filled, deadly female voice broke the silence of the camp early the next morning.

Raya stormed toward me with one finger outstretched. “What the hell kind of magic did you use on me?”

I frowned, shocking myself slightly that I didn’t feel the least bit scared of the raging warrior before me. I dragged my gaze over her from head to toe and turned back to continue folding the blanket from the tent. “I don’t have magic,” I responded coolly.

It felt strange to say it out loud, but with everything else going on, it seemed pointless to pretend here. These weren’t my people.

She knocked the blanket out of my hand and onto the ground. “Don’t you lie to me.”

I reached for the dagger at my thigh and yanked it out. “Get away from me.”

Raya laughed. “You think you stand a chance against me?”

“Raya!” Kade shouted, striding toward us.

He moved to stand between me and his friend, but I shoved him. “I don’t need you to run interference.”

Jax laughed off to my right. He tossed an apple in the air before taking a large bite. “Get her, Princess.”

“Stay out of this,” Raya snapped at him. She turned her attention back to me. “How did you put me into someone’s mind? Tell me now or I swear I’ll?—”

Kade growled. “You’ll what?”

Raya met the arrogant asshole’s gaze, and her vengeful posture lost a smidge of its bravado. She held up her hands. “I want to know how she put me into another’s mind without my knowledge. If she has that capability, don’t you think we should know?”

Kade glanced at me, then back to Raya. “Illiana is telling the truth. She has no magic.”

I gave her a smug smile, but Jax's breathy expletive stole Kade’s attention away from Raya and me. His gaze narrowed on Jax.

“How could she possibly be of use to us with no magic?” Jax questioned.

Worthless.

Nothing.

Andras’s voice filled my head, ringing in my ears.No, not now.

A warm hand on my forearm snapped me back to the here and now.

Kade pulled me close to his side as he stared down Jax. “Watch it.”

Why was he bothering to defend me?

Raya ignored them now, speaking again, with only nominally less vitriol. “I’ve never…” She paused. “I control whose mind I enter. But last night, I was in a dungeon. Inside a man’s mind. A stranger’s.”

I froze, swallowing the lump in my throat at her words. Raya had mind magic.

LikeAndras.

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