Page 31 of Fated In Ruin

The room darkened as he unleashed his magic,hisshadows writhing like living creatures. They surged forward, colliding with mine. Cold flame and empty darkness battled, reality warping, dust and debris rising from the floor into a choking storm.

I felt that collision in my very bones, the crushing weight of his ancient power, the cold fingers of darkness trying to suffocate my dark, beautiful flames. I forced my magic to fight back, to devour those shadows, one bite at a time.

To become something greater than vapor and fire.

My flames turned the shade of darkest night, slipping silently through the space between us like whispers of death.

The moment that shifting, amorphous plume touched him, my magic turned slick, shining with an iridescent sheen, the surface reflecting twisted versions of reality—warped faces, screaming mouths, skeletal hands grasping.

The air around us thickened with the repulsive scent of decay.

Then my dark fire became the faces of hundreds of ghostly people—women, men, children—morphing and undulating, circling Ravok like phantoms, speeding faster and faster, an indistinct murmuring filling the air.

For the first time, I saw something flicker in his black eyes.Doubt.

Then the specters struck as one.

Those phantom claws tore at Ravok’s throat, his face, every inch of exposed skin, raking deep. The Ancient roared, his own magic faltering beneath the onslaught. Blood—hisblood—splattered across the marble floor like some macabre painting.

Horrified, I watched as my magic ripped him apart, a hundred different shadowy ghosts tearing and shredding like feral animals.

Ravok staggered beneath the onslaught, blood streaming down his face, his neck, as he cast defense after failed defense. “This… is not over. Only…beginning.” His voice was a raspy whisper, his gaze flickered to where Malachi lay.

I closed in for the kill, calling up another surge of power when something moved in the darkness behind Ravok, creeping through the ruined gardens like a hunched animal. A set of blood-red eyes glowed. Then another. My breath froze. Revenants.

Fuck, Ravok had brought revenants with him.

Could I fight them? Was I strong enough? Oh God, they were hideous.Fear turned my magic into a sloppy cloud of spilled flame and I glanced back to an unconscious Malachi, my movements growing more and more desperate.

One of the hunched figures straightened, his dark blond head, then his shoulders taking form as he stepped forward another pace, enough that the light spilling from the room slanted across his sunken features.

My father looked more emaciated than Ravok, his skin a grayish-white, once-bright blue eyes now clouded with that unnatural crimson hue, thin shoulders hunched forward as he crept toward Ravok.

Behind him, Alistair followed, hands clenching and unclenching, a slight limp to his gait, his beard caked heavily with gore. While Ravok moved with a predatory grace, these two moved like insects, jerky and halting, like they didn’t control their own bodies.

I didn’t know what Ravok had done to them, but the change was horrifying.

They were hideous copies of the cruel men I’d once known, as if their inner wickedness was now on display for all to see. I’d spent my entire life despising them and yet, pity tightened my throat, my eyes burning when I saw what they’d been reduced to.

Puppets, serving at the whims of a monster.

Because self-control was for the weak, I didn’t stop to wonder if I was doing the right thing, I dropped every bit of restraint I possessed and let the magic burst out of me in a cresting wave of black, heading straight toward Ravok, my father and uncle.

If I finished this now, Ravok—and my own family—would never darken my door again.

Angel would be safe, this would be over, before it even began.

My fiery onslaught ripped toward Ravok like a tidal bore, crushing everything in its wake, tearing through the gap in Malachi’s ward. Seconds before darkness destroyed the monster and his minions, a brilliant light flashed in Silas’s right hand, and the three of them vanished, while that wave of unstoppable power proceeded to decimate the gardens.

I swayed on weakening knees feet, the room spinning. “Fuck.”

Far off crashes and thuds told me the wave continued unimpeded, but there was little I could do except hope there was nothing in the way except trees and rocks.

Crossing the room, I dropped to my knees beside Malachi, head lolling onto his shoulder, one hand still pressed to the wound on his side, not that the pressure was helping. I pulled him into my lap, running my hands over his exposed skin, cataloguing the worst of the damage.

Blood was everywhere. Red seeped between the cracks in the stone, a dark tide pooling beneath his trembling body, soaking into my pants. His breath came in ragged gasps, his body ruined from the impact, and…bile rose in my throat.Was that white edge of a bone poking out of his shredded shirt?

He’d put himself between me and Ravok, like an unbreakable wall.

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