Page 29 of Fated In Ruin

Ravok moved in a blur, sending out an equally deadly wall of blackness tinged with red that turned into a torrent of snapping teeth and rending claws. I shoved Evie to the floor as my magic met Ravok’s attack head-on. Power clashed against power, energy crackling as centuries of rage and hatred collided. The force sent cracks spiraling through the marble floor, dust and debris raining down from the vaulted ceiling.

“Stay down,” I ordered Evie, erecting a dome of glimmering power over her for protection.

I fought like a beast unchained. Like our lives depended on us winning—which they did. Phantom blades raked across Ravok’s chest, but my Maker barely flinched, as if pain was nothing more than an old friend.

Ravok pressed his palm against what was left of my ward—the shimmer of magic keeping him at bay and grinned at me across the destruction. “Now that I’ve found her, you’ll never keep me away. No matter how hard you fight, you won’t keep her safe.”

Evie threw her arms over her head as an enormous crack split outwards from the gaping hole, chunks of plaster and wood crashing down as the roof collapsed over our heads with a creaking groan.

I raised my hands and sent up a spiral of magic, shoving tons of slate and timbers back into place, but the decision cost me, presenting the perfect opening for Ravok. Lightning-fast, brutally unforgiving, his shadows tore into me, shredding flesh from bone, ripping a gaping hole in my side.

Evie raised her blood splattered face, fangs bared. “Release my magic so I can help you. Just fucking do it, Malachi, or we’re both dead.” She was probably right, but the cost was too high.

This was a battle between predator and predator.

And even in his weakened state, Ravok was toying with me.

I could see it in the way he moved, his strikes precise but unhurried. I was injured, bleeding badly, and even fighting with everything I had, every muscle straining, it took every ounce of power to keep Ravok from crossing the border of the castle and taking her.

A flicker of motion.

I turned, hand pressed to the wound to keep blood loss to a minimum.

Too late. He was already there.

Ravok’s clawed hand plunged into my side, deep, cruel, and deliberate. I gasped, body jerking beneath the onslaught, blood blooming like a dark rose on my other side as my kidney was crushed to a pulp. Fucking inconvenient, especially at the rate I was losing blood.

“No,” Evie screamed, climbing to her feet. “You fucker, I’m going tokill you.”

“Stay… behind me,” I ground out, voice raw.

But Ravok had already shifted his dark gaze to Evie.

She went still the second she felt it—the weight of his attention, cold and merciless and oh, so greedy. I tried to shout, to tell her to run, but pressure crushed my throat, invisible fingers tightening.

“Come, child,” Ravok murmured. “This was never your fight.”

Evie’s heart pounded loudly against her ribs. Her body trembled, but she moved closer to me, glancing over my injures before her gaze went back to Ravok. And tendrils of darkness began to leach out from her body, like faint strands of ink, suspended in water.

She straightened. “You are such a fucking asshole. Like I’d ever chooseyou.”

Something like disappointment flashed across Ravok’s face before he sighed. “Such foolish loyalty.”

I staggered sideways but didn’t fall, the room spinning as more and more darkness leaked out of Vicious, crawling over my skin like shards of sharpened ice. Her eyes burned with defiance, my blood dripping to the floor in slow, damning droplets.

I could still stop him, I could…

With an effortless flick of Ravok’s fingers, I flew through the air, crashing into the stone pillars, the impact shaking the very foundations of the ancient castle, breaking bones and rending flesh. I slumped against the cold stone, motionless, a crimson pool spreading beneath me.

Evie’s frantic eyes found mine, but Ravok was between us in an instant, a hand clamped around her wrist, twisting her delicate arm in a brutal hold. “Release the block, Malachi,” she screamed. “Do it.” Her pale face was splattered with blood—my blood—her blue eyes pleading with me, begging me to free her. To fucking do something.

If you can hear me, you have to remove the block. Please, you have to trust me, Malachi.

God, I wanted to, but this was too dangerous, without me to help her. Anything could go wrong. I could lose Evangeline as easily to her own power as I could to the monster who’d ruined me.

There was nothing I could do as she fought him. I could only watch as she clawed and kicked, her fury impressive, but Ravok’s strength was absolute.

“Finally. You’re mine,” he growled, his eyes finding mine, filled with triumph and malice.

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