Page 140 of Fated In Ruin

Stop, you’re only hurting yourself. Think. There has to be a way out of here. I have weapons, if I could break free of Romulus’s shadows, if I could reach you…

The pool is deadly. You need to stay away from the water.His gaze narrowed on Romulus, that gleaming, wicked knife he held.You can’t let him cut you, Evangeline. I can…manage one illusion. Only one, and not for long.

“You will be my first,” Ravok murmured, his eyes gleaming with fanatical light as he dragged a hand through the stream of magic, letting the sparkling essence fall slowly through his fingers like grains of sand.

“I will harness this unholy power to create my own Elders, bound to me, sworn to serve me. We shall become greater than Caine ever dreamed, a new species to reign over the humans, as we should have, from the beginning.”

Ravok dipped his head and Romulus stepped forward, the edge of that blade gleaming with a wicked hunger.

“With Silverwood blood, I will complete his transformation.”

“You can take your transformation bullshit and shove it right up your self-righteous ass,” I spat, gathering my magic, shoving against Romulus’s bonds, carving enough of a hole my flames responded, rising higher, ready to strike?—

Only to freeze in midair the second Ravok lifted his hand. My entire body seized, locked in place by invisible shackles even more powerful than those already holding me in place. And while my magic strained, this was like fighting inevitability.

“Your cooperation isn't required,” Ravok said mildly. “Only your blood.”

He nodded to Romulus, who approached with that terrible smile still in place. The blade in his hand caught the light as he raised it over his head and my breath caught in my throat. Then everything in the room froze.

Malachi’s blood stopped dripping, even the pulse of the portal ceased.

“The others.” Romulus’s eyes flew to the curved ceiling. “They made it past the traps.”

“Go.” Ravok held out his hand. “Take care of them. I will complete the ceremony myself.”

“But Master….” Romulus gripped the knife tighter. “It would be my honor to…” Ravok twitched his fingers and Romulus’s face fell, like a scolded shool boy.

He placed the blade in Ravok’s huge palm with such a look of sullen disappointment I had to grin. “Sucks, doesn’t it, getting cheated out of your moment of glory?” I hissed as he slipped past me.

Romulus would head off Riordan, Blake and Eldric and they were not going to know what hit them. I wiggled and squirmed inside those bindings, but they only drew tighter. There was a knife lying on the floor, forgotten, if I could only reach it…

Relax, Evangeline. The harder you fight, the tighter the containment spell binds you. Go limp.

I tried to follow Malachi’s direction, but Ravok was closing in, and that silver blade was fucking enormous. Big enough to take off my entire arm in one slice.And when he said my blood, did he mean ALL my blood?

One second, Ravok was looming over me, the next, the room was clogged with shimmering glamour, tendrils working beneath my bindings, releasing my arms, my legs. I flung myself forward, scooping that knife up off the floor and launching myself toward the last place I’d seen Ravok, throwing all my momentum behind one desperate strike.

Blinded by glamour, I didn’t see his thick arm swipe me out of the air, send me flying, the blade spinning out of my suddenly numb hand. I dropped to the floor, pulling two of my own blades, crouching low as something big and deadly whistled over my head in a flash of silver.

Motherfucker.

Run, Evangeline. Get out of here now. Once you’re in the outer corridor, dematerialize up to the Keep, then to the woods. Keep moving until Riordan and Blake catch up to you. Then find Brendan Thorne in Ireland. He will hide you.

I couldn’t see, but heard Ravok’s boots scrape slowly across the floor, the portal began to hum again, the magic-fogged air vibrating with that unsettling drone.

Go, Evangeline. You can’t save me, so save yourself.Go and help your mate and the others.I turned toward the doorway. Malachi was right. They didn’t know what Romulus was capable of, I had to warn them…then I stopped, like some invisible tether was yanking me back.

No. I’m not…I can’t leave you.

I turned, gripping my knives.Change of fucking plans. I’m getting you down, and we go after Romulus together.

Through the clearing haze of glamour, the Ancient was a shadowy target as I flung my knives, grinning when metal sunk into flesh with a solidwhumpfollowed by Ravok’s hiss of pain. I had one vial of silver nitrate left, but I’d have to get close, close enough for a personal blow and I leapt forward, my feet leaving the ground, raised arm already plunging down, down toward where I hoped his chest would be, once I broke through this haze.

I never made it.

There was an airy whisper as steel sliced through air, Ravok’s blade bit deep, and I hissed as pain lanced up my arm, blood gushing from the wound, soaking through my shirt sleeve. Rough hands grasped me by the hair and he dragged me like a rag doll to the edge of the black pool, then hoisted me up, letting my blood drip into the still water.

The effect was horrifying.

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