Page 11 of Fated In Ruin

“Fucking Valaine put his hands on my sister?” Every piece of me tightened, my thoughts racing back through that night, the strange scents in our apartment, and something clicked, like my subconscious recognized this as truth. “Did he…”

God, I didn’t want to know if Angel had been hurt, but at the same time, Ihadto know. I couldn’tnotknow.

Malachi still looked worn down, favoring his arm, that gash on his face healing slower than normal and I smothered a wave of guilt. He deserved every bit of this pain. He deserved to have his fancy castle in ruins. He deservedworse,and these were only more lies, meant to knot me up.

“The bastard smelled her blood, lost control and nearly killed her before I intervened. I had her healed, then took her memories, so she would never remember what he’d done. And yes, I brought her to Tyrell, and I’ve fucking regretted it ever since. He would have kept looking for you two and Valaine…he never would have stopped…”

He swallowed hard, throat bobbing. “Until you were captured. Or dead.”

“You’re wrong. I would have fucking killed him, if I’d been there.”

“No, Vicious,you’rewrong,” Malachi murmured sadly. “As a human, you couldn’t have defeated him. Valaine would have killed you, because you never would have stopped fighting, and you would have died for your sister. Angel survived because I got there in time.”

Fine. Some of that might be true, but this fucker, playing the hero…if I’d wanted him dead before, I wanted him twice as dead now. Maybe I could half-kill him, wait for him to regenerate, then kill him again.

“You think…” I could barely speak through the slurry of anger, “you can convince me you saved Angel and me that night? That you somehow…were what? Our knight in shining armor?”

“No, I’m saying I made a bad situation less bad.” He burst to his feet, the tendons in his neck standing out, nose flaring, as if I’d just insulted him.

“I’m saying Angel survived because of me, and I’m not fucking proud of that, either. I’m no knight in shining armor, I never have claimed to be. Knights fucking die in battle, right after the foot soldiers and the grunts.” He stuck a finger in my face that sent me rearing back. “I know two things. Survival and power. Those are all that mattered a thousand years ago, they are all that matter now.”

“What are we trying to survive, exactly?”

“The fucking future,” Malachi muttered, shifting on his feet like he couldn’t stay still.

“Oh, so now you speak in riddles?” I rolled my eyes. “Is this what I have to look forward to as your captive? Hours and hours of word games? I cannot fucking wait.”

He didn’t answer, just stared down at me, a tic feathering his jaw. But something dark flickered in the depths of those amber brown eyes and a lump grew in my throat.

Yes, the stakes were high.

Yes, I was more afraid of Ravok than I let on, but somehow, giving in to this asshole galled me. He didn’t deserve my help. He deserved to have Ravok gut him like a pig, if I couldn’t do the honors first.

Malachi was the one who’d kept his Maker alive, and for what?

Another chance to kill my mate or Riordan?

I didn’t fucking think so.

“My Maker can see the future.” Malachi hung his head, his voice stripped of arrogance as his shoulders sagged, hands hanging limply at his sides. “This moment in time? Ravok has already seen this very conversation, which means he is always a step ahead of me. He willalwaysbe a step ahead unless we find a way to shift the advantage. Until then…”

A too-pale Malachi met my gaze and for the first time, I entertained the idea…he was telling the truth. Maybe…we were in real trouble here.

I sank into the nearest chair. “Until then…what?”

“You don’t understand, Evangline.” He dragged both hands through his hair, leaving blond tufts sticking up. “Like I said, I didn’t set this in motion. All of this is Ravok’s plan. We’re just stumbling along behind him, scrambling to keep up. There’s a reason he freed himself, because he’d leave nothing to chance. Everything that’s happening right now has been planned down to the last detail.”

I shivered at the expression on Malachi’s face.

I’d seen him arrogant, and mocking, and cruel, but I’d never seen him defeated. And as much as I’d craved this male’s total ruination, as much as I wanted to see him crawl, this felt wrong.

“Except Ravok has been locked up.I saw him. He was barely alive when my father took him out of that box. This is all just…” Then I tallied up the chances this was all a coincidence and they were nil.

Ravok had been strong enough to take over Riordan’s mind.

To defeat Morvessa, to force a bargain so he could drink from me.

He’d been strong enough for all that. Suspicion became realization. Everything Ravok had done these past weeks had pushed us to the brink, and here we were, balanced on the edge a cliff, ready to plunge over. He’d woken up…for something.

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