Page 3 of The Princesses of Ruin
Chapter two
Zane
“Queen’s guard incoming!” Scarlett screams. “Northwest!”
“Protect the survivors,” I call to our Spiders. We form up around the charred and bleeding citizens who have no idea that we are in fact protecting them from the guard.
The clank of armor is as loud as the blaze in my harried, sleep-deprived head. The guard appears between burning buildings with weapons drawn, their golden faceplates writhing with black shadows that repel the light of the fire.
The company spreads out and comes to a stop.
“You can’t have them!” Scarlett yells.
We hang in a moment of palpable tension. The seconds before combat where kinetic energy culminates in my muscles and mind.
Scarlett’s spindles twitch. “You’ll lose your puppets,” she calls out, and I realize she’s taken Alyse’s power—she’s communicating with the queen.
She launches forward, her urictsa dagger gripped tight in her fist. Communication is over.
I follow quickly behind her, launching a spear of my magic at the first guard’s raised sword. It hits with a powerfultingthat throwshis blade back, giving Scarlett an opening to bury her dagger in his faceplate. The darkness leaks out of the guard’s mask as he goes down choking on his blood.
The two guards flanking her turn in unison, their weapons coming down in opposing arcs. She pushes off the dead man with all her spindles, leaping into the air with the grace of an arachnid queen as she avoids their strikes. I slice through the left guard’s armor at the neck. His head goes tumbling to the ground, a spray of blood and darkness coating the golden metal of his back.
The citizens behind us scream in panic.
“Keep them calm!” I shout over my shoulder to our soldiers.
Scarlett comes down on the other guard, knees braced against his shoulders as she slams her dagger into his neck to the hilt. He collapses, and she leaps off him to the next man. I whirl to the other six enemies on my left and block a strike with my own urictsa blade, ensuring I keep my spindles far from his sword.
Aleks throws a fistful of black powder at the enemy behind mine and ignites it with a snap of his flint-covered fingers. The particles erupt in the guard’s face and the darkness retreats from their hollow eyes. The man screams and stumbles back. I use my spindles to shove my opponent into his path and they both go down in a tangle of shiny limbs.
Aleks cleans up the two on the ground as I move on to the remaining four. They form a diamond and slowly back away, weapons raised in defensive positions. Golden drips of magic fall from the sky and splash against us all. Suddenly, the black mist of the queen’s power dissolves, leaving the guards alone with their fear as they stare us down.
Scarlett raises her dagger beside me. “The queen is manipulating you! Don’t go back to her. She will get you killed.”
Kazimir and Alyse land in the passage back to the palace, blocking the guard’s retreat.
“Your people need help.” Alyse’s voice slithers through my body like a snake and I know she’s communicated to everyone in the square through her power.“The queen will only kill them. Help us save them.”
The rear guard turns toward Alyse, weapons raised with a scream of madness. In a whooshing strike, Kazimir extends his scythe and a spray of crimson mists the air from the man’s neck. The guard crumples, his armor clanking as his body goes limp.
The three remaining guards tighten, back to back.
“Leave them alone!” a voice cries from the survivors in the square.
We look like villains.
“Back off,” I say to the Spiders.
Aleks and his soldiers retreat several steps, leaving Scarlett and I facing down the three men.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Alyse says, her meek voice hardly carrying over the roar of flames.
Reina and Jasper shout orders in the square, commanding the remaining Spiders. Fire crackles around us, and the survivors wail at our backs as the guards pant, waiting for us to attack. Sweat slips down my back and I fight the urge to wipe my brow.
Scarlett growls beside me. “I’d rather do away with the guards and be back on the task of saving citizens.”
“Butoptics…” I retract my spindles, immediately feeling vulnerable. I raise my voice and step forward. “The queen set these fires to lure the strongest magi into her grasp.”
