Page 1 of The Princesses of Ruin
Chapter one
Scarlett
The bitch is burning the city in our name.
Soldiers dressed in Spider garb set torch to the more delicate wood buildings in the early hours of the morning before the sun, and now the kingdom lights up the smoky sky with orange. I was taking my watch when I saw the flames rip across the warehouses in the port and spill into the mansions of the Upper Kingdom, and it’s been chaos ever since.
“Where’s Rivera!” I shout as I push past a Spider on watch.
“Here,” Rivera calls above the clamor, and I run to his side across the wide rampart of the Wall.
“I need the lords, and yours, Sols’s, and Aleks’s teams here immediately to mitigate this shitshow. Have Sols signal when you’re ready at the gate.”
“Yes, my queen,” Rivera says, then turns for the Underbelly side of the wall. He clips into the quick-descent pulley and leaps from the edge.
I whirl back to the fiery sight. “What the fuck is she doing?”
I open the leather pouch on my hip and find a vial of Zane’s magic. I’d already collected enough this morning, but it can’t hurt to freshen up. I uncork the container and take a sip of the silver liquid.
Zane surges through my veins anew and I groan, closing my eyes at the delicious, invigorating sense of his power rushing through me. I return the half-empty vial to the pouch and slide the other containers around, looking at the magics in my roster. The wolf, shadows, Alyse’s mind powers, and Lily’s transfiguration. I wish I had something to affect the flames—like Kazimir’s wind. Selfish fuck won’t donate his power to me. A trust problem for another time.
Zane vaults over the edge of the wall, landing beside me. His hands come up to my face, and I look at him through my two very different eyes. One shows me his features starkly lit by firelight: dark hair, strong jaw, and concerned, glowing eyes. The other swirls in teal pulses, showing me how much magic is flowing through him, the beat of his heart, and the thrum of his power.
He searches my face for a moment, then looks out over the city. “She’s set fire to the kingdom.”
“And made it look like it was us,” I say.
A powerfulwhoompof air and a thud of heavy feet land behind me.
“What the fuck is this?” Lily asks.
I turn toward her and her monstrously huge demon of a guard, Alastair. “She’s burning the kingdom. I don’t know why, but if there’s going to be anything of it left, we’ll need to move in there fast.”
Fire blazes up from the Underbelly side and Reina lands on the ramparts, Jasper clinging to her side. A softer whoosh of air ruffles Lily’s bed head, and Kazimir lands between us, Alyse secure in hisgrasp. I hiss, not realizing Rivera would’ve called for her too. She’s too delicate and important to risk on something like this.
Alyse shoots me an annoyed glare. “She’s drawing in all the most powerful magi to consume them, using us to scare them into leaving their homes rather than fighting for them. I can hear the guards calling out to the people, guiding them to the palace.”
“We have to get these fires out,” Reina says.
“No, we must stop the queen from growing her power first and foremost,” Alastair says, his deep, demonic voice raising the hair on my arm.
“Well,I’mgoing to save the people she’s about to destroy,” Alyse says, reaching for a wall clip for her harness.
Kazimir pulls her back into his arms and they jump before I can even get a word in edgewise.
“For fuck’s sake,” I mumble. “Alastair and Lily, run protection on them. There’s no way the queen isn’t prepared for us to try and stop her.”
Lily gives me a playful salute and hops onto Alastair’s back between his wings. They dive off the side and pull up hard into the air, following Kazimir and Alyse.
I look at Reina. “We’ll focus on these fires and getting people out.”
“What if she’s trying to lure us into the city as well?” Zane asks.
“If we do nothing, the people will never trust us,” Jasper says.
“Fuck trust, they’redyingout there. We need to help them.” Reina jumps over the wall into the Upper Kingdom, her magical flames blinding me as I watch her descent.
“Fuck’s sake,” I sigh again.
