Page 146 of Fated In Ruin

“No.No.” Ravok paced frantically along the edge of the pool, that silver blade clutched in his hand, his face transformed by rage. “You will not stop this. I’ve waited lifetimes,I saw my destiny,” he screamed, spittle flying from his mouth as he searched the distance between us, looking for some way to drag me back down.

“You both belong to me.You are mine.Mine.”

But the water was wrapped around us too tightly.

Binding me so permanently to Malachi, if Ravok tried to drag me away, he’d be doing it in pieces. I shuddered at the thought, because he’d rip me apart, if that meant he ended up with all the power.

Something struck me in the middle of my back, and I smelled smoke.

Another blow slammed into me, then another. But pain was some far-off thing, smothered beneath the frozen embrace of the water, the sheer stress of so many forces trying to peel me apart, inside and out.

How far gone was Malachi? Was I too late?

Awful, coldness roared through me, biting and gnawing as I kept repeating the prophecy over and over again. Blood will combine to give birth to a king…with his queen by his side…illusion’s dark bride.”

Illusion’s dark bride…illusion’sdark bride…oh God, I must be insane to be attempting this.

Vicious. What are you doing?

Saving you, can’t you tell?

You’re going to die.Malachi’s sad, somber voice came from far away, like we were talking down a long hallway.You’re going to die and I can’t stop this.

I’m not asking you to stop this, I’m asking you to believe in the prophecy, to believe in us.

I love you.

There, I’d finally said the words I should have said so long ago.

I love you and I believe we were not meant to die here, because Ravok got the prophecy wrong. He got it wrong, Malachi.

That curse was meant to be his punishment.

We were meant to be Ravok’s reckoning.

But there was nothing but silence on the other end, a deep, quaking void that seemed to have no end. I wrapped my arms around him tighter and buried my face in his chest.

You are the High Lord of Night and the future is yours, as long as I’m by your side. So that’s what I’m doing. Staying with you and never letting you go.

* * *

I’d barely eventhoughtthe words when the world became a tangled, thorny hole where I was torn apart by some cold, cruel power, dragged deeper than the bowels of the mountain, into a hell of airless pain and crushing cold.

I held onto Malachi as we fell, kept my arms wrapped around his neck, my face buried into his chest, the red, creeping water binding us together tighter and tighter until I could no longer breathe.

He was so still I didn’t know if he was dead, didn’t know if I was still alive.

Something was coming undone at my center, I was unraveling into a million different pieces, fraying into the wind and that was before…before…before…

Evangeline.

Malachi’s fangs sank into my throat, gently, almost, his warm lips closing down on my skin as he began to drink. He became the only solid thing in my entire existence as everything disintegrated around us, and then the world tipped sideways and we were falling, still tangled together, his fangs in my throat and the velvet brush of his tongue the only thing that mattered.

We crashed back down to earth in the center of the pool, my arms still banded tight around his neck, his hands cradling my waist. Blood red water splashed across the floor, up along the walls, extinguishing the glowing red runes, until the only light in the room was from two pitiful torches, spitting out reeking black smoke.

My Evangeline.

Malachi’s deep voice was brimming with might, rich with seductive promise and it took every ounce of strength I had to lift my eyes to his face and look.

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