Page 204 of Red Ruin

“Commander? What just…” She blinks in confusion.

Quickly realizing her sword is missing, she flicks a dagger from her belt and whirls to put me behind her back. Her figure arcs with lightning as she cases a battlefield turned pink and black with hellfire and ash.

“You’re safe.” I nod where I’d usually offer a reassuring pat. “Go support the Guides in the courtyard. Have them send up any Sentinels that give them trouble.”

Her silks relax.

She feels gratitude, relief, and a lingering hit of terror.

“On it.” She palms her dagger to salute me, then leaps over the wall. Thunder booms as she hits the flagstones stories below.

A jittery sense ofthank youstill crackles in the air.

How refreshing.

Remy growls when too much of my attention shifts to someone else. I move behind him, straddling his kneeling legs. Leaning against his back lets me conserve energy. “Easy. I’m not going anywhere.”

Remy captures my arm and holds it to his chest.

Vhex can play flamethrower from anywhere. Not to be left out, he covers me from behind and sinks his chin on my shoulder, tickling my neck with every breath.

I can’t help following the flow of their emotions.

Bubbly with bloodlust, then darkly possessive.

They’re sometimes confused, sometimes lost, butalwayscomforted by my touch.

They protect me front and back, their powers and moods fully ready to bend to my wishes.

I’m in control, but it doesn’t feel that way.

“Next Sentinel,” I murmur to muffle my shiver.

Remy pulls a B-class through the shadows, and I get back to work.

Vhex melts the horde while Remy shields our people and delivers me Sentinels. They’re scary efficient when they’re fighting enemies instead of fighting each other.

I twine deep in their souls, keeping their power flowing smooth. My senses bleed into theirs, giving me a super-powered view that spans the keep and battlefield.

Cherise has her Guides corralling the last few empty-eyed Sentinels, and with Vhex and the Deathguard casting their best wide-area attacks from the towers, we’ve incinerated enough monsters to clear the walls.

As the attacks slow, I feel a rumble through my toes. The tower shakes, but not with death magic.

It’s much too warm.

Earth magic?

My heart catches. “Where are Simms and Tan?”

“I’ll find them for you.” Remy’s shadows bunch, then thin. I link into his senses as he sweeps the keep. The missing pair isn’t in the courtyard with the Guides. The inner rooms are empty, but Remy’s shadows find a collapsed floor, where cobblestones tumble into the deepening pit below.

The shadows plunge through the rubble and keep going, deep into raw rock.

Simms stands empty-eyed at the bottom of the pit.

Tan clings to his waist, but the magic stops and starts, and the earth shifts at Simms’s feet.

The hole gets wider.

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