Page 6 of The Princesses of Ruin
“You have nothing?” I ask, the heat in my voice slipping out past my guard. “You’re under her roof. How is it you’ve discovered fuck-all?”
Freian cringes, his shoulders coming to his ears. “We’re trying, princess. It’s not easy to move about anymore. She’s taken over the guard.”
I suck in a harsh gasp, feeling my body back in the Nest and Kaz’s hand on mine.
“Hemsworth?” I ask, pushing more energy into my ghostly form.
“We haven’t seen him, or several others, for days,” Lumi says. “She may be trying to break them—”
“Or she’s consuming them,” I say, my jaw clenched so hard it hurts.
Lumi shakes her head. “No, she’s waiting. There haven’t been any rituals for over two weeks.”
Why would she halt her progress with how close she’s come?
I sigh. There’s no point in speculating without enough information, and I came here for another purpose.
“Do you have pages, Freian?” I ask, turning my attention to the void beside Lumi.
“Yes,” he says, reaching into his black bag. The paper glows with a hint of purple.
Kazimir’s purple.
Freian turns them to me so I can read. Runic shapes are scrawled across the parchment in precise, violet lines of ink that’s been enchanted with Kaz’s magic. I’ve never been so grateful for his inventions. In the margins, Freian has left notes and ideas of what each symbol could be relating to.
“Paper,” I mumble through my physical mouth.
Kazimir guides my hand to a page and one of his pens is placed between my fingers. I replicate the marks, looking between my ghostly eyes and my own body to confirm their immaculate accuracy.
“Which book was this from?” I ask.
“The red one, middle shelf, far left,” Lumi says.
I scribble the words “red, middle, left” on the page next to the runic symbols. I turn my gaze to the drawing of the Void room on the table before me. The bookshelf beside the clawfoot cauldron is outlined in stark detail, and the red book is right where it should be.
“Anything else?” I ask Lumi.
“Food stores are getting low, and much of the backup supplies in the Upper Kingdom were burned.”
“How long do you have?”
“Eating how the bitch has the past three nights, maybe a month. Most of the servants will starve well before then.”
“She’s been hosting dinner parties for her ‘guests’ to keep them docile,” Freian says. “We’ve been trying to spread the word of her betrayal, that she burned the Upper Kingdom, but it’s not taking.”
Fuck.
The displaced kingdomites are already a draw on our resources, but we’ll figure something out. We have to. If we can’t, we’re not fit to lead, either.
“We’ll prepare deliveries of grain and whatever else we can spare through the underground within the week,” I say.
“That’s another thing,” Lumi says, and I groan internally, not needing her to finish the sentence.
“She’s watching you,” I interject.
Lumi nods.
It was bound to happen. Ashai knows Lumi can mold earth to an extent, being the head groundskeeper, but she must’ve realized Lumi’s power went far beyond making plots for orchards and rosebushes. There’s magic in her blood that’s older than what my people were granted by the gods, and Ashai must sense its growing presence on the grounds with everything we’ve been doing.
