Page 127 of Rook of Ruin
Simon laughs and shakes his head. “I can only imagine the mischief you got up to.”
Milo reaches for my other hand, and I give it easily. We quickly leave the study through the glass door out into our garden. Hope for the future fills my heart as I hold his little hand.
Black blood drips down my sword, and my chest heaves while I run for my life. We’ve been fighting these dickheads on the border for months. Damn, it’s beenmonthssince I’ve seen Orlaith. White fur blurs in my vision, and I strike through more flesh.
I need to get back.
I need to get back to Elliot.
I need to fucking live. Orlaith’s voice screams in my mind while I’m screaming out loud, yelling for Tess to move her ass before we become overrun.
My shield falters. Tess turns, her dark sapphire and white gold brace glowing. She opens her water flask and creates water arrows, shooting at the fucking demon wolves gaining on us. Twelve Rooks against hundreds of Roggenwolves and Wraiths on the border of Acros and the Serus Mountains, a fucking wasteland. A Rook screams, and Tess’s eyes widen with sheer panic as we run past a Wraith—watching the malevolentcreature rip off the Rook’s arms and soak up the power from his body . . . and brace.
Eleven.
“Fight . . .”Orlaith’s voice shouts in my mind again as we sprint.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice another beautiful woman floating on dark swirls with green power pulsing around her. She is trying to flank us. Pushing my power out, I take her mind. A thousand voices intermingle at once, and it’s almost deafening. I swing my sword, taking her head, but not before discovering two fucking secrets.
They possess a curse.
They are looking for the descendants of Jovan.
“Fuck!” Paul shakes with anger. “Ossian and the reconnaissance team, they stirred up a hornet’s nest. There are people in the Serus Mountains, captured no doubt, and—” His brace lights up. “Now they are sending Rooks back to the northern outposts near the Serus Mountains,without their braces.” Paul rages as we take a break from sparring outside. He crumples the message from the love of his life. I pick it up and begin to read the coded letter, swearing as the words slice through me. Zane and Tess are both going.
“Paul—”
“I’m fucking useless here. They keep rejecting my requests to come home, acting as if I’m an emissary instead of a fucking Rook!”
“You—”
Paul cuts me off again. “I sent a request to Ossian. I can only hope he will help me since he’s been promoted.” He throws his hands up in exasperation. “What do they expect them to do? Without their braces, fucking nothing. The only other Rook whohas destroyed thosethingsis Ossian, and he had his brace on.” He looks at me, waiting for me to explain how I defeated the Wraiths without mine, but I have no explanation to give. “Why wouldn’t they allow the Rooks to have their braces?” He voices the question burning in my mind.
Paul saw the light surrounding the naked woman in Acros the same way I could. We theorized it was because of our braces, since they give off a magical light. We also believe, since there was something wrong with my brace before I left Acros, it transferred that ability to me. We’ve spent many hours trying to come up with explanations. Each time I bring it up to Simon, he dismisses me and changes the subject.
Paul shakes his head, seething. “Queen Inara knows Acros warriors have less experience than us Rooks, and she is still sending them. We had the best warriors of Bethal with us when we fought the Roggenwolf, andtheycouldn’t take down that bitch. What the fuck are Tess and Zane going to do if there’s a Wraith? What are the useless warriors of Acros going to do?”
“Fight. That’s what they’ll do.” I rub my temples. “Tess and Zane can hold their own, and the Acros warriors have some battle experience with the Roggenwolves. I know you’re worried. I—”
“Worried? I’m fucking scared.” Paul begins to pace. “I havemybrace, and I don’t even understand why. I’m not doing anything here!”
“Is Ossian not going with them?”
Paul’s brace glows bright in response, and a light breeze hits my face. That’s an angry no.
“I’ll talk to Simon. We will help.” The whole fucking reason I married Simon was to help cultivate a stronger bond between Bethal and Acros, but Queen Inara has yet to invite Bethalian warriors over the border.
“Talk to him all you want, O. He is more concerned with having an heir than anything else.” I rear back, and Paul frowns. “I may respect Simon as a warrior and for taking in Milo—treating him as his own—but Simon’s turned out to be a dickhead to you.”
I can’t argue with that, so I don’t. Simon has been up and down all the time; one week, everything is perfect, and the next, it’s terrible. It’s been an ongoing conversation with Paul over the past few months, but he has promised not to tell anyone about my fraught relationship.
I stop Paul and hug his sweaty body to mine. “You’re angry, and I’m truly sorry.”
He places the top of his chin on my head. “I’m sorry. I’m—Bethal isn’t going to go into our borders without an invitation. I can’t lose Zane. It would destroy me. We’re supposed to get married—fuck, it would kill me to lose him or Tess.” The panic in his voice is gut wrenching.
“I know. They’re family. I’ll do everything I can, Paul, I promise. We won’t lose them. We can’t.” I let go of him and will it to be so, giving him a hopeful smile. “We will help.”
Paul says nothing, and that nothing says everything. It hurts my soul. He picks up his dagger and stalks off without a goodbye. Our hearts are with the Rooks of Acros.
