Page 114 of The Princesses of Ruin
“Then it was not just your choice, but mine too.”
She shakes her head, her lips coasting over my wrist. “You didn’t know what you were agreeing to. You were delirious from blood loss.”
I capture her face and her gaze, locking her into my stare. “We’re in this together. Always.”
“And your demon? What does he think?”
“An emotional fuckwit who will learn where to direct his rage or I will rip him from my body,” I say with a snarl directed at my right arm.
She chuckles softly and kisses my wrist again. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop,” I say, dragging her close once more. “Stop apologizing for keeping us alive. I assume we got the antler as well?”
“We did.”
Relief hits me anew. We have what we need to destroy the impending threat.
“We will figure out what to do with this duskwalker when we’ve handled the dark goddess,” I say.
We lay quietly for a long time. The wind whistles outside the window, ushering in a storm. The stairs creak overhead every few minutes as Spiders come or go from the dormitories.
“How is she going to defeat him?” Lily whispers.
I thread my claws through her hair and gently grip her head so I can pull her off my chest. Silent tears streak her face. This is vexing her deeply. She feels responsible, and my demon’s reaction to the news was not helpful.
“We can’t kill the beast?” I ask.
“‘To do no harm’ was the exact phrasing, I believe,” she says with a scoff as she traces her brand.
“Imprisoning it is an option.”
She raises an eyebrow at me. “Our runes did fuck-all last time.”
“And now we have twenty years to make better ones,” I say.
There’s a gusty rattling along the side of the Nest and then a heavythudat the front. Spiders are shouting and scrambling about screaming something about a—
“Alyse,” Lily cries andscrambles off the table.
She runs to the door and pulls it open. The third princess is on the other side, her face wind-chapped and tear stained. They throw their arms around one another and collapse to the ground, both sobbing.
I realize I’m fully nude and find the closest shred of clothing to cover myself before getting off the table. There’s a pair of ripped pants thrown over a chair that serves fine, and I see all the additional changes as I pull them on. The injury on my leg is now fully healed, and so is the hole in my chest, but they’re both demon skin, never to be mine again.
I turn to see Kazimir looming over Alyse, his face…
His mask.
The silver urictsa mask he wears on missions over the Wall is blackened and burned, scars of lightning ripped across it. The skin at his neck is red, and not from the frosty storm.
But behind the mask I can see his pained eyes. A longing to make Alyse’s tears stop, just as I’ve felt for Lily. Something has happened to them, too. Something terrible.
“How far along?” Lily asks.
Alyse sniffles. “A few months.”
“Fuck.” The word grunts from my mouth unbidden.
Lily climbs to her feet on wobbly legs. I lurch forward and help her as she grabs Alyse’s hands and helps her to stand, too.
