Page 8 of Ruin

“Hey! You two play nice. We don’t have time for anymore shit between the two of you.”

Blue just rolled her eyes, but B’nar nodded. “I’m willing to play nice if she doesn’t try to run or to kill me.”

My friend looked at me, and her eyes softened. “Fine! I’ll save it until we’ve got Connor back.”

I squeezed Blue’s fingers. “Thanks. I need you both. Please don’t kill the prince heir, or we’ll have the Faerie army to fight as well as Hell’s.”

When I’d commandeered my choice of weapons—a multifunction gun like Blue’s, more ammo, two knives, which I strapped to my thighs; and the bow infused with faerie technology that made it super accurate and its arrows deadly, I nodded at B’nar.

The prince stood next to Blue. “Ready?” His green eyes began to glow.

The wolves inside me rumbled their agreement as I nodded my head.

B’nar nicked his thumb with a blade.

Blue grunted. “I’d have cut you, if you’d asked.”

B’nar gave a feral grin but didn’t reply, which I was thankful for. More angst between them would only delay things, and now we were so close to getting back to Connor, I wanted tomove. B’nar smeared his blood over the blue stone, and it flared to life. He chanted over and over, his voice gaining power and momentum. Power prickled over my skin and the portal burst into life beside the glass topped table.

Images flickered through the space between the edges of the portal like the trailers to a movie. Wind eddied around us. I was glad Lance and Ava weren’t coming with us. I doubted that the first meeting with Connor would go all that well, and I needed this to go as smoothly as possible. I wiped a bead of sweat from my temple. Who knew what state Connor might be in, if he was even still alive.

“There! That’s it!” The metal table that I had died on flickered into the image. The room was empty, the only light coming from the open door which hung from its hinges, the rubble from the wall in a pile.

“Jump in. Now.”

I didn’t need telling twice.

Chapter 4

Ember

Grabbingthe two wolf spirits which had been yanked from my body by the energy of the portal, I leapt out. Landing solidly, rubble crunched under my feet. The wolves slammed back into me, and I staggered under the agony and power that flooded my body.

“Mother...fucker!” I dropped to one knee, slamming the palm of one hand against the wall, breathing hard as I regained my equilibrium. “I hate it when that happens.”

Blue jumped from the portal, B’nar right behind her. “Yeah, must be a bitch.” Blue had her weapon out and set to kill as she ran to the hole in the wall and peered carefully into the corridor beyond. B’nar took up a position opposite her on the other side of the ragged hole. Alex vaulted from the portal and closed the distance between us. “You okay?” he asked gently. None of them carried shifter spirits so they didn’t suffer like I did when they travelled through a portal.

“Yeah, just give me a mo’.” The wolves inside me were settling, but I was still shaky.

“Sure.” He held a weapon loosely by his side, his soles crunching through the rubble no matter how hard he tried to stay quiet. “Hey, B’nar? Think we could shut this down before it tells every demon in the vicinity we’ve arrived?”

B’nar whispered in fae and the portal collapsed in on itself. I swallowed, hoping we hadn’t just made the biggest mistake ever, leaving Walker behind and in the dark. No doubt he’d have another portal ring somewhere and follow us as soon as he figured out what we’d done. I glanced at B’nar’s strong profile and wondered just how much trouble he’d jumped into with us. Walker would not go easy on him, in fact he would probably be punished more severely for his betrayal. I looked away. That wasn’t my problem, B’nar had made his own choices.

Without the portal, it was dark and eerie. The prison seemed quiet, deserted. Overhead lights flickered dimly, giving just enough light to make out the blood stains on the floor near the wall, but there were no voices, only the sound of stones falling and rubble shifting.

I moved up to Blue’s side and stared at the ground. Mother Wolf, that was where Connor had collapsed. His blood stained the ground, dried into a dark stain. Exhaling through my nose, I stood tall and pulled my own weapon.

“Where to?” asked B’nar.

I carefully stuck my head out of the hole and peered into the corridor beyond. It was deserted. I don’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t for this block to be completely empty. My stomach sank. If Connor wasn’t here, where in the hell would they take him? I refused to acknowledge the fact that he might already be dead and gone. “I’m not sure.” I eyed the corridor, twisting my head to look up and down. One way led out into the arena which had contained the fighting rings and the room where we’d killed Doherty, the other led deeper into the maze of the prison and the science wing.

The stench of rotting corpses wafted through that open doorway. “That way,” I said, nodding deeper into the science wing. Berith hadn’t planned on keeping any prisoners in the arena, so he’d just left the dead that were of no use to him.

Using measured, careful steps, I crept down the corridor, weapon at the ready. Blue and Alex flanked me and B’nar brought up the rear, watching our backs.

My skin prickled beneath my suit, the hairs on my neck rising. Evil contaminated the air in this place, every shadow, every patch of darkness was a hideous thing that seemed infected with it.

Each cell we passed was ruined, their doors hanging off their hinges, the metal tables stained with blood. But there were no bodies. The silence was broken only by the crunch of grit and stone under our boots. I paused just before rounding the corner of another corridor. A soft grunting sound, like the breathing of a large animal, reached my ears. Goosebumps rose on my skin. I signaled for the others to halt then lowered to my haunches and peered around the corner.

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