Page 145 of Fated In Ruin

She showed me her hands and nodded, a small, broken movement.Fine. I promise I’ll do whatever I must to survive.

Relief washed through me, and I turned my gaze to Ravok, his eyes alight with greedy anticipation. “You think you've won,” I rasped, water flowing down my throat, perversely tasting of Evangeline. “You think you'll break me, turn me into your perfect weapon.”

Ravok smiled, all teeth and no warmth. “It's already done. I can see the change happening, right before my eyes.”

“Then look closer,” I snarled. “Because I make you this promise, Ravok. I will have my revenge. Whether it takes days or decades or centuries, I will find a way back to myself. And when I do, I will use this new power to end you.” His smile faltered, doubt flickering across his ancient, brutal face.

“I've broken stronger males than you,” he murmured, but I heard the uncertainty in his voice.

The water pulled harder, impatient now. I couldn't fight the final change much longer. I turned back to Evie, memorizing her face one last time.

I will always find my way back to you, I promised, as icy cold filled me from the inside out. In this life or the next, no matter how long it takes, we will be together again.

I wrapped that love in the deepest part of myself, a secret even the shadows couldn't reach. A spark that would never be extinguished.

And I'll be waiting, she vowed, her power swirling around her like living fire as she climbed to her feet, steel glinting in her eyes.You won’t be alone, Malachi. Neither of us will be. Not ever again.

Before I could work out what she meant, the final transformation crashed over me, unstoppable now. My consciousness slipped away, fragmented pieces of myself disappearing into a void of hunger and stone-cold rage. With my last moment of clarity, I looked down at Evie and forced myself to think one final word.Run.

Then the water closed over my head, dragging me down into darkness. My ruined flesh convulsed as ancient, primordial magic ate away everything that had once been mortal and shaped me into something else.

Pain beyond anything I'd known tore through me, bones breaking and lengthening, muscles expanding, skin ripping, mind fracturing.

But through it all, as I was hollowed out and filled with shadow, I clung to one thought. One promise. One name.

Evangeline.

64

EVANGELINE

Astrange, dull thudding stretched the room out, then contracted back down, my flames—and the sparkling magic—pulsing in tandem with every beat. There was so much power in this room my body ached, my bones groaning from the strain of simply existing.

Ravok was suffering as well, but didn’t notice, too engrossed in watching his precious destiny coming to life, right before his eyes.

Well, fuck him.

Fuck him and his delusions of grandeur, because I was about to sabotage his long-awaited plans.

I’d take his long awaited ‘destiny’ away and sure, I wasn’t thinking straight—not with so much hate in my heart—but if I couldn’t have my future, Ravok sure as hell wasn’t getting his.

This was horrifying, watching the red water encase Malachi like a living thing, knowing my own blood was the key to his downfall. Knowing that whatever emerged from this ritual would no longer be Malachi Draven.

That the male I loved would no longer exist.

I lurched to my feet, the toes of my boots grazing the edge of the pool as Malachi began convulsing in his gleaming red cocoon. My magic had been refilling at an astounding rate, something to do, I suspected, with the sheer amount of power clogging this room. I took another deep inhale, filling my lungs with primordial reek.

This magic tasted wild and untamed, yet filled with unexplored potential.

Like chaos, about to birth something that had never existed before.

Well, I was about to test that theory.

Ravok’s hands were clenched at his sides, so focused on these final seconds of Malachi’s transformation, I doubted anything could distract him.

I eased a small blade out of my belt, dragged the point across one palm, then the other, cutting deep enough I wouldn’t heal quickly. My blood-slicked hands fumbled the blade as I slipped it back in my pocket, fingers instantly weak from pain, but I didn’t need fine motor skills for what came next.

Before I second guessed myself, before Ravok could react, I launched myself off the dusty stone floor, flying across the space until I crashed into Malachi, banding my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist and hanging on tight. The red water was colder than anything I’d ever experienced, but the slippery fluid instantly encased me, too, crawling up my arms to my cut palms, as if called by my blood.

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