Page 259 of Red Ruin

I’m already craving more.

Later.

After a shower, I’ll take my Sentinels to bed. Somewhere with soft surfaces and no undead.

Just because I want to.

Just because I want them.

At the edge of the cavern, we find Tan draped over Simms’s lap, both of them half-buried in sand from a collapsed earth wall.

Hearing my slow approach, Tan cracks open one eye. “Tell me it’s over.”

“The lich is handled. How’s Simms?”

“Passed out,” Tan answers as he disentangles, moving as creakily as I feel. “He’ll be fine. Just overstretched his power.”

“We’re on vacation after this.”

“Vacation?” Tan finds the energy to snicker. “Not for you,Commander.”

“We’ll see how long that lasts. Come on,” I say and offer him a hand.

With Vhex and Remy’s help, we dig out Simms and recover what’s left of Kevan and Luca.

Remy bags their bodies in shadows for an easy return to the Deathguard.

I’m not looking forward to that hand-over.

Thankfully, we don’t have to find our way back to the place we entered the maze. Once we hit the tunnels, the arrays blocking Remy’s shadow-walking have weakened enough that we can take the shortcut back to the surface.

We wink out as a group.

I shudder in the dizzy place between spaces.

We’re lucky the arrays held on as long as they did.

There must be aseriouspower source hidden somewhere close. I put it on my list of things to deal with—after cleaning up these corpses, treating all my Sentinels, and rebuilding our defenses in time for the next kobold spawn.

If I’m still in charge?

Do Iwant tobe in charge?

Of all this mess?

Before I can wrangle my thoughts, we pop into open air with a sunrise view.

Light hits the hump of mountain rubble below us, surrounding the collapsing pit. It would be peaceful if not for the carnage of scattered skeletons and decomposing monster flesh. You can barely see the rocks under the crazy biomass gathered after centuries of warfare.

I cup Remy’s mouth and nose before the stink sets off his bloodlust.

He chuckles richly, then licks my fingers. “The stench can’t harm me. I’m sated on your blood.”

My fingers twitch from the warm rasp of his tongue. “Good, but we need burn teams here before the next spawn.”

Vhex steals my glaive to free my other hand.

“Burn team?” he says, caressing down my arm. His nails are black andmostlyhuman, maintaining just enough of a claw tip to tickle as they scrape my skin. Goosebumps ripple in the wake of his unhurried touch. His broad hand slides until he swallows my palm from behind. Vhex firmly knits our knuckles, then lifts our joined fists.

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