Page 99 of Shadows of Ruin

Andras pulled the blade out. He thrust it into her stomach and stabbed her again. And again.

Casimir grabbed the queen with one hand as she fell, and reached for Andras with his other. My screams of utter rage echoed in my head. I watched in horror as a familiar ring on his index finger glowed brighter. They were siphoning her magic. Just like they’d tried on me. Casimir released the queen, and her body slumped forward. Lifeless.

Kalliah cried next to me, choking out unintelligible words of sorrow as she continued to fight against the shield despite the queen’s death.

Voices shouted around me. I heard Leif’s and Corbin’s strangled sobs and looked to my left as they dragged their blades over the shield. Horror in every line on their face.

Tears flowed down Hale’s face as he stood, his blade embedded in the shield.

A deafening sound of thunder clapped, and the skies opened. Lightning struck across the entire sky, illuminating the dark night as if it raged along with us.

It didn’t happen often, but nature herself was here for this. Present and furious.

Andras stepped over the queen’s body, not seeming to give a fuck about the clear sign from nature.

“How fucking dare you kill your queen.” Rage coursed through my veins, but the damn earth magic holding me in place still hadn’t receded. I wanted to kill him. Iwouldkill him. The guard faltered, enough that I thrashed and pulled an arm free, slicing again at the vines. With no shield, I’d get to him and finish this.

He walked toward me, and I fought harder. Harder than I remembered being able to fight in a long time.

“Didn’t you find it odd you didn’t encounter anyone on your escape from the dungeons?” he asked with a sinister grin. “Iallowedyou to escape. And I will allow you to leave thesepalace grounds if you can fight your way out from the guards here and by the gates of Ellevail.”

“Why?” I questioned. “Why would youletus escape?”

He tossed his head back, as rain pelted his head, slicking his thin black hair around his face until the crazed man within truly reflected outwardly as well. “Because no matter what happened here tonight, you will bring meher.Whether she is searching for you now or you find her and return to exact your vengeance. Illiana will return. I’ve made sure of it. And I will be ready and waiting for her when she does.”

“I willneverbring her to you.” I spat in his face.

Andras wiped the spit off in pure disgust. “That is where you are wrong. The Fates have already decided.”

“Nature has decided your fate. Do you see the storm raging around us? This is the response to you murdering the queen,” I argued.

“This is the result of weak magic. Magic that has no idea what’s in store for our land,” he said, his lip curling in disdain. “Now leave, if you can make it past the guards.”

Andras turned on his heel and grabbed a torch from the closest guard. A torch shrouded in magic, still burning brightly despite the rain. Without hesitation he dropped it on the queen’s crumpled body. I watched in horror, but Leif and Corbin ran forward, trying again to get to her. Guards fought them, coming from dark corners we hadn’t seen. The rain fell harder, but the flame still burned. I screamed against the restraints in agony, unable to control myself.

Andras didn’t spare her a second glance. “Casimir, release him.”

The vines fell away, and I bolted for them. But Casimir wiggled his fingers at me as Andras dropped some sort of smoky explosion, and they vanished behind it.

I shifted my focus now to the queen, not caring about the flames, or the grotesque smell of burning flesh as I tried to tamp them out.

The fire licked my skin, but I ignored the pain, throwing my body over hers. Thunder roared once more, and the rain pelted me angrily. My actions, combined with the increased downpour, somehow worked. The flames receded, smothered out.

“Thank you,” I choked out to the nature around me.

Lucien jumped to the queen, licking her face, whimpering.

Pulling back, I kneeled before the queen as my friends fought around me. I touched her neck, delusional, like there might be a pulse. “Come on,” I begged. We couldn’t lose her. Lana couldn’t lose her. She had already lost so much.

“Please,” I whispered.

The queen didn’t move.

I removed my hand from her neck, body trembling at the weight of what I’d just witnessed. At what we all just witnessed.

Without a thought for the battle still happening around me, I tilted my head back and yelled to the sky, shouting at the Fates themselves in a bellowing scream.

Our queen was dead.

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