Page 13 of Shadows of Ruin (The Broken Prophecy #2)

Chapter 12

Lana

M y entire body rebelled as the morning light cascaded into the room.

It couldn’t be morning. I hadn't even slept an hour with the unnerving sensation of Raya watching me through the night. I swear the hyper-focused Fae slept with one eye open.

And unnerving was putting it mildly.

Beyond the sensation of my jailer’s watchful gaze, I couldn’t stop replaying what Kade had told me about my father and his death. It was a choice. A choice he’d made for me, if I were to believe Kade. It certainly didn’t feel like a lie last night. Or now.

Then, even more shocking than his request for Kade to kill him, my father had a mate. How many times had they told me mates didn’t exist in this world? The strongest bond in every fantasy, every myth in our libraries, and he sacrificed it for me. How much pain had his decision caused my mother? Would she forgive me once she discovered the truth?

The weight of his love, of his final moments, felt like too much to truly comprehend.

I peeked over my shoulder, Raya’s back to me for the first time all night. Since she didn’t seem to be in a hurry, I rose, tiptoeing to the tub hiding behind a thin curtain in the corner of the room. The water remained unused last night, which meant it’d be freezing.

I dipped my pinky finger below the surface, shivering, but quickly stripped myself of my dusty clothes anyway, dropping into the tub. I’d be a fool to pass up an actual bath for the first time in… I didn’t even know how long it had been anymore.

“What if I had saved that water for myself?”

Raya’s cold voice made me jump, the soap flying out of my hand. I grimaced at her as her head poked around the tattered curtain. She burst out laughing. “Hurry up. I’m washing too. And not in front of you.”

Grumbling under my breath, I cleansed myself as best I could under the circumstances. Even if it only lasted for a few moments, feeling clean lifted my spirits.

Raya and I changed places in the makeshift washroom so we could each have some semblance of privacy. Just as I finished putting on my tunic, a quick rap on the door sounded. As I opened it, Storm ushered me into the hall.

“You talked to him.”

I frowned, finishing a fast braid in my hair. "Since that isn’t a question, I’m assuming you two were gossiping late into the evening?”

Storm smiled. “I’m just grateful he told you something.”

“Why?” I pushed. “Why do you care?”

Storm put his hands on his hips, sighing before he shook his head. “I’ve known him for years. He carries a heavy burden, and with it, he thinks he has to protect everyone. He?—”

The door slammed open and Kade stood in the frame, glancing between the two of us. When his gaze stopped on me, something flickered in his eyes. Hope? No. I couldn’t quite place it, but it disappeared in an instant.

“Are we ready? ”

Storm snorted. “I just walked out of the door a moment before you.” He shook his head again. “I'll obtain our horses from Opal.”

He stalked down the corridor, leaving Kade and me alone in the hall.

It seemed strange after the horrors of yesterday that anyone would do this group a favor. Letting them stay, caring for their horses—it all seemed like a lot to give when Kade had murdered two people yesterday. Unless fear drove their compliance.

I wrapped my arms around my waist, nausea churning in my stomach as I thought about the execution we’d witnessed—what Kade had done. Too much guilt lay wrapped up in allowing myself to feel the overwhelming pull toward him.

Kade’s shadows lingered, inching closer as we stood awkwardly in the hall.

“I’m surprised anyone would help you all,” I said, forcing the harsh words to convince my heart of what my mind believed to be true.

Kade’s face softened. “Lana.” He took a step forward but immediately stopped himself. He’d been doing that more and more. “We’ll be downstairs when you’re ready.”

My heart squeezed, a painful weight in my chest at the thought of the Kade I’d known versus the person I’d seen here.

I nodded, recoiling from the different feelings this man brought out of me, but followed close behind.

We’d barely hit the first floor of the tavern before Raya’s footsteps sounded hurriedly behind us. Jax leaned over the counter, talking to the owner of the tavern, who handed him a large brown sack.

“Until next time, gorgeous.” He winked at her and strode toward us. “Horses are saddled and ready.”

Upon entering the stables, it became all too apparent I would be riding with someone else, again. Why I thought they could have procured another horse overnight, I do not know. But I’d stupidly hoped.

Jax and Storm mounted their enormous chestnut stallions and moved toward the main road, discussing something in hushed tones. There was absolutely no way in this world, or any other, I would ride with Raya, in fear for my very life. Which meant, reluctantly, I joined Kade next to his steed as he mounted.

A calming whisper of shadows fluttered down my arm. I hated how soothing they were. How much I wanted them close.

I can do this.

Kade reached for me, swinging me up onto the horse. His hands braced my hips, the position forced me flush against his body.

I swallowed. Fates, being pressed up against him wouldn’t help my clashing thoughts. His shadows swirled around me and whipped playfully through my braid. I tried swatting them away, without success.

Kade leaned closer, wrapping his hands around the reins. “Hold on. Onyx is a feisty ride.” His whisper in my ear elicited a full-body shudder before he spurred the horse into action.

Damn him.

The relentless pace of the group, combined with my stiff posture to keep from colliding with Kade, made the ride brutal. We moved swiftly throughout the dead lands. I took in our surroundings again, unable to comprehend how someplace so lifeless could be so beautiful.

Kade’s silence allowed me to replay the events of the past few days over and over in my mind. From the moment I told him my secrets and shared my bed with him, to my father’s death, and then discovering Mysthaven. All of it. After hearing him out about my father, regardless of whether he would earn my forgiveness or not, there was still one thing I couldn’t come to terms with.

The action I couldn’t get over.

The fact that Kade had killed those Fae in the streets and looked as though he enjoyed doing it.

It ate away at the dark recesses of my brain. Something inside of me screamed that I didn’t know the full story. That there could be some “perfectly reasonable” explanation for their deaths too, like my father’s. Were they actually traitors to the crown or was something else happening? From each person’s comments, I couldn’t be sure what was the truth.

My father’s saying— Never trust something is as it appears at first glance— scratched at the back of my brain.

But Kade’s eyes had been so black. Dark, almost in the way the dark ones back home looked.

The horses slowed from our cantor, Storm calling for a small reprieve for the animals.

I shifted, but Kade enveloped me, tensing as though he thought I planned to jump off the horse. “Don’t even think about it,” he whispered in my ear.

I leaned forward, pulling away from him, trying to escape how completely he overtook every one of my senses. “You should have used some of your precious time last night to bathe. You smell as if you rolled in garbage.”

He didn’t though. At least not enough to mask the scent I was beginning to crave whenever he wasn’t near me. He smelled like my favorite mornings in Brookmere, when rain faded and left behind the promise of a new day. Crisp morning air and nature, completely satisfied and filled with hope.

I hated him for it.

Kade’s dark laugh stirred that thing deep inside of me I had yet to figure out. “You interrupted those plans with your lackluster escape, Little Rebel. Now you can suffer the consequences. ”

The spark between us trailed up my spine, as if it enjoyed his teasing. My body was a traitor.

“You know,” I said, my voice cracking from pushing my desire away to focus on more important things, “out of all the fucked-up things that have happened to me recently, I cannot get over you killing those Fae yesterday. Were their crimes so heinous it warranted their deaths? Publicly like that? Especially when your friends questioned their guilt?”

Kade stiffened behind me.

Jax scoffed as he trotted closer to Onyx. “For someone he loves, you sure do act like you don’t know him at all.”

I gaped, my mouth wide at the insinuation. I didn’t know him? Jax didn’t know his friend at all if he thought Kade Blackthorn loved me.

“You have no idea what you are talking about,” I said, sitting straighter. I needed distance from the warmth caressing the skin at my back.

Jax stared me down, narrowing his eyes before shaking his head. “He didn’t murder those Fae.”

“Jax.” Kade’s voice held a warning.

Jax held up a hand toward his friend. “No, I know you think this is safer, but she’s going to need to trust us where we’re going.”

“I saw it with my own eyes. Those Fae died. Snuffed out by his shadows. Over what?”

Jax growled, “You saw what you were meant to see.”

Kade tensed behind me.

Raya snorted. “Don’t worry, Princess, they don’t tell me anything either. I’m too much of a liability. ”

That gave me pause. Raya seemed an integral part of their group. Why wouldn’t they tell her? “I don’t understand.”

“The king has too much access to me,” Raya explained, surprising me that she responded herself. Or at all. She clucked and encouraged her horse forward, the rest of us following suit. “He molded my mind magic to what he wanted me to be as a child.”

Kade’s shadows settled around me, and I let them.

“I wasn’t born in a palace,” she said. “Certainly not surrounded by family and loved ones.”

Jax snorted. “Are there such things as loved ones in the palace?”

Raya snickered along with him. “Fair point. As I said before, I was dropped on the doorstep, inside the royal gates, abandoned by my worthless parents. I had to fight every day to survive there. When the king discovered I had the ability to connect through minds, he didn’t hesitate to use it to his advantage. Forcing me to enter life as a Guardian, to train not only my mind but my body as well. I rose in the ranks quickly and became one of the elites, just like the rest of these fools.”

“We are all elite of course.” Jax held out his arms, spanning them over his outfit. “The Guardians of Mysthaven. The best of the king’s soldiers.” He winked.

Raya rolled her eyes, something I found her doing often when Jax spoke. “Whatever the king did in our private training sessions altered the way I use my magic. Through his training, he has access to my mind at any time. Over the years, I have learned how to shield him from seeing everything, but without the ability to safely test some of our theories, we don’t know what the king can and can’t see through me.”

I gasped. “The king is that powerful?”

“Yes,” Kade said from behind me, and I didn’t miss the way he shifted his hands on me, tightening his hold. “He can wield several other elements too—air and fire. He is powerful, as was your father due to their royal bloodlines.”

I glanced back toward Raya. The king’s power aside, that level of intrusion, especially from such a young age? It was awful. The king, so far, sounded far from a good and just ruler. The fear the others had of him was palpable.

She cleared her throat. “So while I know some of the dealings occurring in our group, and help however I can, I am not privy to everything.”

“Help with what?” I questioned, but Kade spoke at the same time.

“Raya, you know we do it just as much for your protection as ours. We trust you, we just can’t take any chances that he will find out about anything we’re doing. It would ruin all we have worked toward. All that we hope to accomplish.”

“You don’t think I know that?” Raya snapped. “Of course I do, but it doesn’t make it any easier to be left on the outside.”

A strained silence surrounded the group as we trudged along. Raya and I were more alike than she realized. I could empathize with her feeling of being left on the outside because I had felt it my entire life.

It’s why I fought so hard to establish the Hidden Henchman. Watching others take on risk, take on life while I remained safe in a guarded palace had never sat well with me. It still didn’t.

As a warrior, it would be difficult. As a Guardian, that feeling must be tenfold.

If what Jax said was true, and Kade didn’t really kill those people, what happened to them? Where did they go? An explanation lay within reach, but any hope I had of obtaining those answers in Raya’s presence remained slim.

We moved through a tunnel of leafless trees, their branches forming an interconnected archway above us. Thorny bushes lining the edges made it impossible to escape the well-established trail without our skin being torn to shreds.

Kade shifted in the saddle and his arm loosened, though still resting on my hips. The hair’s breadth between us did nothing to calm the electric current of energy sparking as it always did. His presence wrapped around me. If Jax and Storm spoke the truth, then perhaps I had been too harsh a judge .

Though he’d made it impossible to continue trusting him blindly, I could at least refrain from assuming the worst immediately.

While I would never be over the death of my father, maybe, just maybe I could grant Kade a bit of a reprieve from my loathing. Right now, I needed one moment not to worry about the warring emotions inside of me. So I’d use him in the same way, all for a second of peace and the possibility of returning home quicker if I cooperated.

At least that’s what I told myself.

“I’m too tired to fight this anymore,” I said, as I stopped resisting the lull of riding in front of him and nestled my back against his chest.

Kade sighed. A strange relief fell over me as our bodies connected. One he must have felt as well, if his sigh served as any indication.

“I’ll take any excuse you need to give if it means touching you again, Little Rebel.” His whispered words brushed over my skin. This might have been a bad choice.

I tried to keep those thoughts at the forefront, but Fates, the comfort his arms provided —no!

I needed a distraction. “ How much long—” I started to ask as we exited the tunnel of trees, when Onyx reared on his hind legs, neighing in fear.

Kade’s shadows burst outward over the ground, and I saw what startled the horse.

Dark ones.

A horde of them.

I cracked my neck, preparing for another battle. Apparently, the Fates took my need for a distraction literally.

Storm dismounted, sending a massive fireball toward the incoming attackers, creating a space for us to gather ourselves.

Jax and Raya paired up together instantly, working on slaughtering the assailants to the left side of the tree tunnel. The two slashed their blades from their horses with ease. It was clear why they were Mysthaven’s elite Guardians in the way they moved.

My gaze remained transfixed on them and their deadly dance of swords and magic.

Jax moved as if he knew exactly where Raya would be next. The two proved to be an absolutely lethal combination.

Kade, Storm, and I shifted to the right side of the tunnel.

I went to unsheathe my dagger as Kade produced a sword from the horse’s pack, thrusting it into my hands.

“Show them what you’ve got, Little Rebel,” Kade said with a wink as he dismounted in a smooth movement. Shadows swirled around his feet, billowing into clouds around him.

His arrogance really did know no bounds; we were being attacked, for Fates’ sake, and he managed to wink. My skin warmed at the gesture, which felt much more like the Kade I knew. A weight clearly lifted in him after telling me the truth about my father last night.

He pulled his sword from his waist and then, with his right hand, conjured shadows into the shape of a sword. An actual sword.

A freaking shadow sword.

My jaw dropped as the shadows thickened, matching his other blade, becoming less and less transparent.

“Is it bigger than before?” Jax shouted, stabbing through a dark one while still on his horse.

Storm grunted. “Definitely more solid. Harder and longer too.”

“Hopefully he knows how to wield it,” Jax laughed.

“Shut up, you idiots,” Raya scolded, cutting off Storm and Jax from continuing their teasing.

A dark one screamed and stole my attention, running toward me. Crouching slightly, I welcomed the attack. I would prove to all of these Guardians I could hold my own too.

Kade’s shadows exploded outward from his body, knocking out a group of ten dark ones before my feet even landed on the dusty ground. From the corner of my eye, I saw fireballs fly through the air.

Rushing forward, I took the opportunity to deliver the killing blow to a dark one Kade was battling. Slicing into the man’s stomach, I hummed in satisfaction as blood gushed from the wound while he fell to the ground.

Without a moment’s hesitation I turned, moving on to my next target.

A caress skimmed over the length of my back. Kade’s shadows. At first, they lingered, but as I approached the next attacker, the shadows formed a solid cover over my body. Like armor.

Shadow armor.

Well, that was kind of cool.

“You were holding back in Brookmere,” I shouted over my shoulder.

Kade chuckled behind me but didn’t answer.

Using the techniques Ian taught me, I skillfully took down two more dark ones without receiving a single scratch.

He would be proud of me. The thought stuck in my gut, and a void hollowed out inside of me. I missed him desperately.

Jax and Raya left a pile of bodies in their wake as they moved swiftly through the onslaught.

Kade moved off to the side to deal with another group of dark ones, while Storm backed himself closer to me.

Back-to-back, we battled a few more charging around us. Storm was an incredible fighter, and his fire magic was entrancing. If Ian could ever forgive Storm for knocking him out, together they could be unstoppable.

A figure to my left caught my eye, but I didn’t have time to look as I took on a particularly large man. Though twice my size, I refused to back down, meeting my attacker blow for blow .

When another appeared from behind the one I fought, he lunged, slamming me away from Storm. I stumbled. Before the dark one could swing his blade down over me, I rolled, swiping at his ankles.

I caught him, a howl ripping from his throat. To my left, the figure from before—a large, dark catlike creature—took form and prowled before pouncing on the attacker whose ankles I’d sliced.

"What the hell is that thing?” I shrieked at Storm, wielding my blade against my first attacker since the one who’d shaken me to the ground remained preoccupied with the panther.

“It’s Jax,” Storm shouted over his shoulder. “Show off.”

“Tits and daggers,” I hissed, sinking my blade into my assailant’s gut.

The man fell to his knees, eyes rolling, as Jax growled. I turned, checking to ensure his safety when a gurgling shout drew my attention from behind.

Before I could raise my weapon to defend myself, the dark one on his knees lunged forward with his blade. Storm jumped in front of me, pushing me out of the way, as he plunged his dagger straight into the dark one’s chest.

“Not tonight, asshole.” Storm ripped his weapon from the dark one's body.

“There’s nowhere to hide. More will come. So many more.” The dark one laughed as he choked on his own blood, falling to the ground for good this time. Even now, he wheezed, “We’re stronger than you could ever imagine.”

Pulling myself up from the dirt, I turned to thank Storm but shouted instead.

A small dagger stood lodged into Storm’s upper thigh. Dangerously close to a main artery.

The adrenaline from the battle must have dampened whatever pain he felt, because it wasn’t until I screamed that Storm looked down and saw the knife protruding from his leg. He fell to his knees .

“Storm, no!” I yelled. “Kade!”

With a final blast of his shadows, Kade knocked out the few remaining dark ones near him and ran over to Storm and me, panting heavily.

“Lana, it’s fine, I’ll heal.” Storm winced.

The adrenaline at seeing the dagger in Storm subsided. Just because I lacked healing abilities, didn’t mean these Fae did. Ian had healed himself plenty of times from injuries. Storm would be able to as well. I breathed deeply as relief calmed my original fear.

Jax shifted back into his Fae form and approached, standing beside Kade.

“I got it. It’s taking you long enough, you oversized baby,” Jax said as he reached down and removed the knife from Storm’s leg.

“It’s been some time since anyone broke skin,” Storm countered.

Kade ripped a piece of cloth from his tunic and tied it above the wound to slow the bleeding.

We stood in silence, breathing heavily, waiting for Storm’s natural healing ability to kick in.

“Well, that was fun.” Jax grinned. “Not too bad, Princess.”

I huffed, handing the sword from Kade’s pack back to him.

“Told you she has been trained well,” Storm said, taking a step forward. His leg wobbled, causing the others to hesitate.

The flow of blood had slowed, but now, black circles peeked out from the makeshift bandage.

“For fuck’s sake, what is that?” Raya asked.

Storm untied the fabric from his leg, wincing.

“Kade, are you seeing this?” Jax asked. “His skin is turning…turning black.”

My heart stilled and the sinking feeling inside of me worsened as I noted Jax’s expression laced with worry.

Slowly looking up and meeting Jax’s gaze, Kade spoke. “ We need to get to Mount Legion, and fast before it spreads any farther.”

I jerked my head toward Kade. “He is going to be okay though, right?”

Storm shook once, and he swayed, suddenly unsteady on his feet. “I have you, brother,” Kade said. He looked grim as he picked up Storm and carried him toward the horses.

He pushed Storm up onto Onyx to sit slumped over, and as soon as he had, I grabbed his arm. “That blade was meant for me, Kade.” Tears welled in my eyes. “He has to be all right.”

Kade’s jaw tightened, but before he could speak, a hand shot out in front of me. Raya offered the reins of Storm’s horse. “Looks like you're on your own for this stretch.”

Nodding, I grabbed the reins. I swallowed, watching Storm’s body, swaying still from atop the saddle. Kade stood next to me, grasping Onyx’s reins in one hand.

He brushed his thumb across my cheek but didn’t offer me reassurances. He let a shaky breath escape before turning to his friend.

“Do you need to lean against me?”

“I’ll stay seated. Get on, you overbearing ass,” Storm mumbled back.

Kade mounted Onyx behind Storm, glancing at me with a fear I’d never seen in his eyes.

“We need to ride. Now.” Kade’s voice faltered. “If we don’t get him to a healer soon, we could lose him for good.”