Page 149 of The Princesses of Ruin
“I can do it,” Zane says, reaching toward him.
Adrik holds out the flask and Zane takes it with an unsteady hand. When the potion is in his grasp, the emotion bleeds from his face, like he’s turned to stone. He scales the walls into the pit with his spindles, but they’re melting with every step he takes.
“Tell me she’ll live,” he yells, holding the beaker over the writhing, silk-wrapped Scarlett.
“I can’t promise that,” Alyse says into our minds.
Zane hesitates, his hand retracting an inch.
“Do it!” Alyse commands, but there’s not enough arcane power left in her to force him.
Scarlett screams and the wall splits. Gelatinous fire eats up the space left in the pit, and Iksah chitters in pain. Zane’s hand trembles.
He can’t do it.
But I can.
I’ll do my duty that Alyse condemned me to without my consent.
Sister killer.
World saver.
I point my finger and narrow a beam of my power. The neck of the flask shatters in Zane’s grip and the potion crashes down on Scarlett and Iksah.
The world holds its breath for the second time. Sound and time stop. Only light pierces the veil, ripping through the realms at this epicenter of power. The doorway is as black and abyssal as before, but there are no hellbeasts on the other side. There is no army waiting to topple out. It’s peaceful there.
Maybe they’ll find peace.
Iksah hugs Scarlett tightly and falls into the doorway out of time and space, taking my sister away forever. It snaps shut like a thunderclap, leaving nothing behind but the ashes of a scarred past…
And us, to rebuild the future.
Chapter fifty-two
Zane
Gone.
I should’ve leapt in with her, for what is left here but rubble and ruin? The Nest is destroyed and so is my only other purpose in life.
The ground burns the soles of my shoes as I walk to the spot she once was. What if it wasn’t her wrapped in silk? What if she’s just under these stones?
I dig into the red-hot rocks with my good hand and spindles, pulling them up. I feel that just one more overturned slab will reveal her face. That she’s down there, waiting for me to find her and bring her back to the surface.
Someone grabs my arm. I wrestle free. Just one more stone. She’s there, I know she’s there. One more.
One more.
One more.
Each rock I overturn is bloody and my gut plummets. She’s been crushed. She’s dead.
I tear into the debris and pull the stones away with flagrant abandon. More, deeper. I know she’s here. There’s blood!
I’m knocked sideways by a blow to the head and hit the ground. My shoulder aches and my hand throbs. I take a breath and feel the pain radiating through me.
“Stop digging! She’s not here!” Kazimir yells.
