Page 28 of The Princesses of Ruin
You’re too weak to fight this.
“She’s attempting to take hold of you.”Alyse is there again, strong and bright, her golden magic pushing through my body. The spinning stops and my ears pop, bringing sound back into focus.“I’ve cordoned her off, for now.”
“Bring her to the palace. There’s something you all need to see.”
Zane nods reflexively, then grabs my chin and turns my face up to his. Concern wrinkles his brow, so I smile to assuage the very worry I feel deep in the pit of my stomach.
“I’m all right, love.”
He cups my cheek and thumbs the skin below my empty socket. He stares into the hole of my missing eye with a snarl that raises the hair on the back of my neck.
His gaze shifts to my eye. “She’s inside you.”
I flash a smirk. “Jealous?”
His jaw flexes.
“Not in a joking mood, I see.”
He scoops me off my feet and I let out a startled yelp as I cling to him.
“I can walk,” I say, making it clear in my tone that Iwantto walk.
“We’re not walking.”
His spindles grow and flex, lifting us from the ground. He looks back at the pair of Spiders still shaking off the blast.
“We’re headed to the palace to assess the situation. Meet up with your squad at your designated hold point and await instructions.”
“Sir,” they say in unison.
Zane pulls his legs up and crosses them under me, creating a cradle with his whole body. It’s as if I’m breakable—
Or dangerous.
He’s shielding the world fromme.
His spindles launch us forward into a swift but elegant skitter. Zane looks ahead, but I can only look at him.
“Do you fear me?” I ask.
His eyes stay locked straight ahead. “I fear for you.”
He fears you.
That’s a lie. You’re a bitch, and that’s a lie.
You’re powerful, much more than him.
“She’s trying to affect my thoughts,” I say.
“I don’t fear you.” Zane looks at me now, a gentleness in his gaze. “I fear what she’ll do to you.”
“Take over my mind, presumably.”
“But will you be gone? I couldn’t…if you were still in there,” he whispers, and I know what he means to say.
He couldn’t kill me if there was hope I was still alive in this vessel with her.
