Page 233 of Red Ruin

It sounds like two voices roped together with barbed wire—one is light and annoyingly familiar, the other echoes deep, dry, and eerily discordant.

I lift my head, bracing to fight Kevan’s possessed corpse.

It’s not him.

Luca stands at the bottom of the pit.

His ripped Guide uniform flashes graying skin. Dried snot crusts his upper lip.

Those big eyes aren’t coy or even brown anymore.

They gleam maggot white, no pupils and no humanity left.

My gut churns.

“Where…” Still reeling, I search for my glaive.

I spot it a few feet away, the pole wedged in a crack between rocks.

Lich King Luca coldly watches me stumble to the weapon.

My body throbs, and hot blood trickles down my forehead.

I can’t feel Vhex or Remy.

I swallow hard.

Let’s not bet on them remembering to rescue me.

I brace against my glaive to stop my knees from buckling. My grip slides in blood.

Yeah. This is going to be fun.

When I square up, I squint to stop my vision from twinning.

Lich-Luca hasn’t moved.

A subtle glow shines beneath his feet. I can’t trust my eyes right now, but I swear I see ghostly gold chains, crisscrossing beneath his skin.

Some part of the original array is still working. Even with a fresh body, the lich’s soul must be locked in place.

He’s not all-powerful.

There’s hope.

Slowly, I move closer to him.

The crater isn’t as deep as I thought when I was rolling down the edge. I can still see monsters fighting at the rim, and full-flame Vhex going at the wyvern.

Lich-Luca watches me advance.

When he’s almost in range of my glaive, the air shimmers.

Magic crawls over my skin.

Suddenly, I’m surrounded by monsters.

I shiver.

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