Page 133 of Fated In Ruin

I ended up braced against one wall, every agonizing breath sharp with pain, my mouth tasting of copper, keeping one hand pressed against the gushing wound. “You were always a pessimist, Rom. But me? I’m a glass half full kind of guy.”

I didn’t know where I found the strength—maybe from imagining what would happen to that fierce, beautiful female if Ravok got his hands on her, but I gathered my remaining magic and drove every bit of it all toward Romulus’s ribs.

I couldn’t fail, couldn’t afford to let Romulus stop me.

I had to reach Ravok before he found Evie.

Or worse, before Evie found him, which was more likely.

Romulus countered, but too late, his sword splintering as he tried to parry ancient magic with forged steel, spooling up his own magic far too late to do himself any good. My glamour punched through bone and everything beneath, rupturing his lungs, glamour exploding over his body at my command.

I no longer wished to stop Romulus.

I wished him dead, and my glamour obeyed, chains of searing light coiling around his limbs, binding him in place. The air hummed with power as I limped forward, something dark and ugly coiling in my gut—vengeance.

“You thought you were the hunter,” I purred. “But Ravok was willing to sacrifice you to the cause. How do you like your Master now, Romulus?”

Rom strained against the bindings, but my glamour sapped his strength, drawing power from him, feeding his strength into me. The wound on my stomach sealed over, blood stopped dripping, my head cleared, the poison in my system faded away.

Normally, I was above common thievery, but today, I would do anything to survive.

“Even after Noctarian, even after Tyberius, I would have left you alive. We were friends, once” I told him bitterly. “So much so, I traded my life for yours. But I have exhausted all my mercy.”

Romulus stared up at me impassively, nothing on his face except acceptance, and a trace of a smile, as if he’d known all along this was his fate. Perhaps Ravok had told him how his life ended. Perhaps he’d had centuries to prepare for this moment.

I meant to kill him quickly. A merciful death, after all the pain he’d inflicted.

I pulled the cold iron dagger from my belt, raised the blade over his throat for a clean blow.

An electrical charge shattered the air, crackling across me with a faint jolt, lifting the hair on my arms as ribbons of red magic captured my wrist.

I glanced through the doorway, to that still pool of water, dark and glassy, and above it the suspended portal—pulsing with malevolent energy.

Aria stood there, her once-defiant eyes dull, hands at her sides.

A thrall, waiting for her master’s command.

At my feet, Romulus began to laugh, heaving up a mouthful of blood, splattering across the dusty floor onto my shoes. “After all your planning, you’ve lost, Kai. You’ve lost and the look on your face…is fucking priceless.”

My arm was frozen in place, the dagger worthless, Aria’s magic holding me captive.

“The witch will perform the ritual,” Romulus’s expression shifted to awe. “And the world will be transformed.”

“She’ll never get the chance,” I hissed, gathering my strength for a counterattack, but the knife slipped from my hand and clattered across the floor, my glamour disappeared into wisps of smoke as the room filled with red light. “Ravok will never complete his transformation, because I am going to kill you all.”

“No, you won’t,” Rom whispered, blood dribbling from his mouth. “He has seen this moment, as he has seen all others. A new realm will rise, ruled by a new king, with his queen by his side.” Desperation hardened my resolve, and I forced my magic to obey, grasped it with sweaty hands and trembling fingers.

“If you think our Maker will be transformed into some kind of god, you are dead wrong. Whatever he’s planning, this magic will unmake him, forge him into something unnatural.”

“Oh. Not Ravok.” Romulus’s smile widened as he painfully climbed to his feet. “You. A creature of the night. A slave to your true master. A mindless beast for all of eternity, unable to die, unable tothink. A fitting punishment for your sins.”

Fuck that.

I was still trying to call up my magic when Aria’s glowing red magic snared me, coiling around my body like vines, thorns piercing my skin to hold me in place, stop my struggling.

Ravok appeared behind the tiny witch, his enormous hands swallowing up her shoulders as he grinned.

“Bring him so we can get started.” Romulus climbed to his feet, dusting himself off.

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