Page 244 of Red Ruin

Monsters start to drop.

To save himself, the lich king draws back his energy, abandoning his minions.

The lich king crawls across cracked obsidian, desperate to drag himself back into the safety circle, but Luca’s shell rips apart from the magical punishment.

Bone shows through his melting fingers. He twitches on the ground.

“Come out,” I call through clenched teeth.

A sickly soul rises from the ruined body, bound in spectral golden chains that bind it to the array.

The soul pulses yellow and gray. It reeks of pus and rotten eggs.

But its edges are faded.

All those years in prison have worn the lich down.

It’s even more vulnerable without a host.

Before I can take advantage, the soul flashes to the closest body.

Kevan lies convulsing among the other fallen Sentinels. Whether he’s dead or undead, he can’t escape the backlash of losing his Guide.

His imprinted soul-silks glowed green. Without Luca, they lash with pain and fray apart. Some grey with decay. Some fade back to a duller shade of Kevan’s old blue.

I draw back my silks to protect my energy.

Kevan isn’t someone I can help anymore.

With a mouthless scream, the lich king’s soul jumps inside his chest.

On shaky legs, I reach for the nearest thing I can use as a weapon. I end up grabbing a long-handled hammer that’s too heavy when I already feel like I spun a full cycle in a rock tumbler.

The lich king’s soul boils around Kevan’s breastbone.

It can’t latch in?

Losing the imprint must’ve damaged Kevan’s body as well as his soul.

Senseless with agony, the lich king keeps trying to burrow. Its shrieks curl my hair. Before it thinks of jumping to a fresh host, I lift the hammer high.

“Didn’t you want my body? Come and take it.” I brace my legs and swing, using all the power in my hips.

At the last second, I tilt my head to avoid seeing the hit.

The hammercrunchesthrough bone.

Arms rattling, barely keeping my balance through the pain, I drop the handle. A ghostly flash shoots past my face. Its cold energy feels deeply familiar, but it zooms by me without a hint of resonance.

Kevan’s soul escaped.

I guess he’ll survive.

More or less.

I have bigger problems.

Pissed and in pain, the lich king switches targets.

---