Page 90 of Lord of Ruin (The Age of Blood #2)
The fall that Isaac had told him Shan had requested, that he had no choice but to let happen.
He didn’t fully understand it, truthfully, despite the way that Isaac had explained it to him while his head was still swimming with adrenaline and agony.
The way that Shan had risked herself, setting herself up to be their bird in the place.
The way she had given them enough information to be able to save Samuel, arranging all the pieces just so and casting herself in the role of the villain.
How Isaac had to make it look real.
Isaac had made it look too real, in Samuel’s opinion. He could still see her, when he closed his eyes, as sleep eluded him. Lying there on the ground, shattered and broken, left to die.
Rolling over to face Isaac, Samuel swallowed the groan that followed, ignored the flare that ran through him. “Please, Isaac. Just tell me what you know.”
Isaac hesitated, teeth catching on his lip. There was so much worry in his eyes, concern that wasn’t entirely misplaced, but Samuel was sick of being handled with kid gloves. “Please,” he repeated. “If you know anything about Shan, I need to know.”
“Shan lived,” Isaac breathed, and Samuel felt a weight lift off his shoulders, only for the fear to slam its way back on the next exhale. “But…”
“But what?”
Isaac ran his hand across his face, looking so desperately lost that Samuel almost regretted pushing.
“But things have changed in the court of Aeravin. The King… he’s making plans to fight us.
The House of Lords has been dissolved, completely and formally.
Lady Morse is taking over the Guard, your former position being folded into hers.
There will be a new elite squadron of Guards formed, made entirely of vampires. And that is not the worst of it.”
Samuel swallowed hard, his mind already swimming with all the implications. “How could it get worse?”
“Easily,” Isaac ground out, expression flickering with something so dark and furious that even Samuel couldn’t bear to look at it. “Because in addition to all this, the Eternal Bastard has decided to take Shan as his bride, giving Aeravin its first queen since the founding of the nation.”
Despite the firm mattress and the soft touch of Isaac against his skin, Samuel felt like he was drowning, falling into the depths of some dark emotion that he dared not name. A glimmer of something so loathsome and horrid, but burning true and fierce.
Perhaps the darkness in him hadn’t been his magic, after all.
“He what?” Samuel gasped, and Isaac glanced away.
This was it, then, what Isaac hadn’t wanted to tell him. Though whether that was kindness or calculation was anyone’s guess, but Samuel had enough of this with Shan. “How dare you hide this from me.”
“It’s not like that,” Isaac said, clutching Samuel’s trembling hands. “I was going to tell you, but Celeste advised that we keep your stress in check, as much we could.”
The anger dimmed, just a little. “That’s not your decision to make,” Samuel said, driving the point home. “I cannot… I cannot keep living like this.”
Something in Isaac’s expression settled, understanding dawning. “I understand,” he said, pressing his lips to the mangled scar over Samuel’s wrist, ill healed from the King’s vicious bite. “And I will not do it again. But there is little we can do in the moment.”
“But Shan—”
“Knows what she is doing,” Isaac interrupted. “She made her choice. The King, for whatever godforsaken reason, trusts her, and you know it’s too valuable to pass this up. With her at his side…”
“She could die,” Samuel whispered, the words barely audible, as if the mere fact of speaking it out into the world would make it come true, an ill-focused wish.
“She could,” Isaac agreed, “but so could we. You have already been wounded by this, as have I. Neither of us are the men we were when this started, but we cannot back out now.”
The tears returned, not of pain, but of despair. The sheer frustration of coming so close to success but losing something precious in the process. “I cannot lose her.”
“We won’t,” Isaac said, with such certainty that Samuel felt a fool for doubting. “She trusts us enough to put herself in this danger, so we owe her the same trust in return. She will survive this, and then when it is done, be returned to us.”
His lips pulled back into a snarl, his teeth sharp and glinting in the low light. He looked more than the man, not quite the beast—caught somewhere in between, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. “After everything else this world has taken from me, it’s the very least we deserve.”
It was heartbreaking, but Samuel knew the universe wasn’t that kind. If they wanted a future where they had a chance at happiness, they would have to fight for it. And to get it, Samuel wouldn’t let Isaac fall to darkness alone. He was already ruined, so why hold himself back anymore?
Isaac and Shan had already done so much for him, and it was time to return the favor. There was no more room for incremental change, for lesser evils, for hoping to scrape out a future that would be only just a little better.
No, if the King wanted war, then let there be war.
“All right,” Samuel breathed. “Let’s bring Aeravin to its knees.”
He leaned in, pressed his mouth to Isaac’s. Ran his tongue across those too-sharp teeth, ignoring the painful prick as the warmth flowed between them.
Sealing his promise with blood.