Page 97 of Shadows of Ruin

The air thickened, tension palpable as Andras took one slow, calculated step toward the queen, bowing his head.

“As my queen commands it.”

Andras’s eyes glimmered as the smile plastered over his face widened so much, it looked painful.

He lifted a hand, signaling a guard behind him, and the chaos of the impending fight fell on all of us.

For our queen. For our lives. For the future of Brookmere, we’d fight and die here if we must.

The guard in front flicked his wrist, activating his earthmagic and commanding vines to sprout around us. They snaked and slithered, working their way up our legs. I hacked at them, but more guards stepped forward. Their magic unnaturally strong.

Lucien breathed fire out over them, trying his best to play a role, but even his flames didn’t help.

I looked up, horrified as I continued to hack at the vines until I noticed movement behind Andras.

Casimir lurked from the shadows. He looked larger than I remembered him. His eyes as dark as night.

He’d siphoned magic. This was him, not the guards.

“Attack,” I shouted to the others.

Corbin ran in front of me, blocking the queen from the guards, but she refused to leave the fighting to us. “While I honor your intentions, Ian, I am queen. I will not yield this kingdom without a fight.”

She stepped to Corbin’s side and I watched in awe as she raised an arm over her head, and summoned the guard’s sword toward her into her own hands. She whipped her arms around, air swirling around the guard directing his earth magic until she lifted him from his feet, throwing him back. Her victory halted as a guard descended on her, engaging in a sword fight.

Corbin blocked skillfully where she missed, aiding her attack, but I couldn’t let her risk herself.

I moved to join the two, but Casimir lunged and twisted his hands. Gleefully, he let out a dark chuckle as more thorny tendrils than I could count shot toward me. I kept my arms from being locked at my sides as blades hissed through the air and clashed around me.

The queen turned, shoving her air magic toward a patch of the growing vines, wrapping them around themselves. I shouted as another guard swung for her. She turned, blocking the assault and flinging air magic at some of the other guards nearby.

I’d never been gifted the opportunity to see her in action. Our queen, fighting alongside her guards. My chest swelled with pride for all she stood for. I wished Lana could see this too. She would be in awe of her mother.

I rallied, shouting and pulling my blade through two of the four vines constricting my legs. More and more sprouted to life, but I kept my fighting hand free as I used the dagger Hale gave me to slice through the vines attacking me. It wasn’t enough. I needed a sword. My sword.

“Ian.”Raya’s voice was back in my head, her presence popping into existence.

I sawed at one particularly thick vine around my thigh.Your timing is shit. Don’t distract me.

“Where are you? I can feel the man with the powerful mind magic nearby. Your shields are weak and?—”

Kind of busy at the moment, Raya.

The effort to block her out took my focus away from the task at hand. She lingered there, quiet, but I could fuckingfeelher.

“Damn it,” I shouted as a vine wrapped around my waist while I finished hacking the one immobilizing my legs.

The queen’s shout in front of me turned my skin cold.

Andras, though thrashing against the air the queen flung around him, had made it to her side. He grabbed her by her arm and pulled her toward him, producing a knife from the billow of his robes. He held her body out, facing all of us. “I’d stop fighting those vines, Captain. One more move, and she’s dead.”

Chapter 28

Ian

Immediately, I obeyed.

Sword fighting continued around me, but I froze, desperately trying to figure out a way to get the queen back. Andras ripped the knife down her dress, leaving the side of her ribcage exposed to the elements. The frayed edges of the fabric swayed in the breeze.

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