Page 36 of Shadows of Ruin (The Broken Prophecy #2)

Chapter 35

Kade

M y body jerked violently as I shot straight up in bed.

Beads of sweat lined my brow from the humid summer night. My breath came in short, quick successions. I reached out to feel Lana on the bedroll beside me to calm this unease.

But the bedroll lay empty.

Lana was gone.

A sense of foreboding permeated the air.

Yanking my clothes on took seconds before I shoved my feet into my shoes. I secured all of my daggers, pushing them into their respective sheaths before grabbing my sword. I exited the tent, desperate to catch a glimpse of her rose-gold hair in the moonlight to prove to me I had nothing to fear.

I stumbled away from the tent, clumsy for perhaps the first time in my life as panic swelled, blocking out my finesse. “Illiana!” I shouted.

How had my shadows not even noticed her absence?

She wasn’t sitting near the extinguished fire, nor wandering between the tents. “Lana!” I yelled again.

Deep in my soul, I knew something was wrong. I rubbed my chest, feeling the throb of the new shadowy tendril inside of me. A tether had further solidified after last night, a connection to Lana that now dimmed.

I dug my fingers into my skin, as if I could reach the core of the feeling at my center, admitting to myself the words I hadn’t yet said out loud. Fates, I remained unsure if I even could say it with the curses forced upon our kingdoms.

Kalliah, Corbin, Raya, Storm, and Jax all appeared from their respective tents, groggy and confused.

Turning to Kalliah, I moved to her side in a few strides. “Is she with you?” I asked desperately.

“No, she went to bed with you.” Kalliah put her hands on her hips. “If she’s not with me, then the next logical conclusion would be Ian.”

We all looked between us before Jax asked, “Where is Ian? And Hale?”

I scrambled in an uncharacteristic panic toward the remaining tent. Jerking the flaps of the tent, I yanked them open and saw Ian lying face down on the ground, hog-tied.

“What the hell,” I bellowed, quickly removing the ropes from his ankles and wrists. “What happened? Where is Lana?”

My heart raced. I would not lose her now when I just got her back.

“Hale,” Ian choked, his hands shook hard as he tugged the gag out of his mouth. “Poison.”

His eyes held an untapped rage alongside fear. I helped him up, but his body went limp. “Raya,” I shouted.

She was inside the tent as her name finished rolling off my tongue.

“No.” Ian tried to pull away, but Raya took his face in her hands, closing her eyes.

They opened a second later. "I can’t access my magic.” She frowned, her gaze wandering over Ian’s form. I noted her concern, something she rarely showed, but pushed it aside.

“Poison,” Ian repeated. “It’s wearing off. I still can’t feel my magic, but I’m not immobile anymore.” He stepped away from me, wobbling on his legs, but he remained standing. “Hale poisoned the stew. See if you can tap into your magic.”

I didn’t need him to say any more. I became instantly aware the dimming connection to Lana had nothing to do with her distance. My shadows hadn’t sensed she’d left because they weren’t with me. I staggered back, realizing my terror over Lana’s loss eclipsed the fact that my shadows were silent.

We stepped out of the tent. “Check if you can access your magic,” I demanded of the others.

One by one they met my scrutiny with furrowed brows. No one had their magic.

Ian rubbed his wrists and hurt lined his face. “Hale betrayed us. They took a potion that stifles magic, one Elisabeth created when she was trying to heal the king, and he used it on us.”

“Hale wouldn’t do this,” Kalliah said.

“Well, he did,” Ian snapped.

“Then something is controlling him—” She froze, staring at Ian wide-eyed. “He is the one who got us out of the palace. It was his plan. He came to us.”

Ian rubbed his forehead. “I agree he wasn’t himself. His eyes shifted in a way I’ve never seen before.”

I paused. “The darkness.” Storm met my worried gaze, coming to the same conclusion I did.

“Andras planted Hale with us and sent Casimir as well.” He looked at me. “You were supposed to be with her. Why isn’t she with you?” he demanded, as if this were my fault.

“She was gone when I awoke,” I confessed, dread leeching my common sense from me. “I will murder him if he touches a hair on her head,” I growled. “Jax, you know what to do.”

Jax nodded, and stood beside Ian, sniffing his shirt.

“Hurry up,” I snarled, unable to temper my raging emotions .

He glared at me over Ian’s shoulder. “It’s a bit more difficult without full access to my magic.” He sniffed again.

“What in the Fates are you doing?” Ian asked, but he didn’t push Jax away.

“My senses as a shifter are heightened regardless of magic,” he responded, taking a step back from Ian. “As are yours if you would learn how to train them properly.”

I noticed the captain frowning, no doubt unappreciative of Jax’s comment about his own abilities.

Jax approached me next, winking. “Fates, I should have started with you?—”

“Not another damn word,” I said through gritted teeth. I couldn’t handle his teasing, the way he wanted to diffuse some of my anger. Not when it came to Lana’s safety.

Jax stepped away from all of us and stretched his neck, turning slowly until he froze, eyes opening. “To the woods.” He pointed off to the right.

“He can track them by scent much faster than we can search on foot,” I explained to Corbin and Kalliah. “You have a choice. Stay here and guard the campsite or join us for whatever we are about to face.”

I looked back toward my tent. Where Lana had been with me just hours before. The ball inside of me tightened in response to my agitation again. If I had been able to access my shadows, there wouldn’t be a campsite left. Perhaps the poison was a blessing at this moment.

Corbin and Kalliah looked at each other for a moment and nodded. “We fight,” Kalliah responded, unsheathing the dagger from her side. A glimmer of vengeance twinkled in her eye.

“Let’s go.”

Following Jax’s lead, we ran. Every so often, he paused, sniffing the air again.

He cursed, a frustrated snarl escaping him. “It’s harder without my damn magic. Give me a minute. ”

I should comfort him, reassure him the way Raya did, instantly going to his side. But my mind churned too fiercely to be of any use. I left the encouragement up to the others.

Harder, faster we ran. We jumped and dodged low-hanging branches and rocks, forcing ourselves through the wooded area at a speed defying what our diminished magic should allow.

The love each one of us had for Lana pushed us forward. She may be mine, but she was also theirs. All of theirs.

A woman who brought together two kingdoms just by being herself.

“Ahead!” Jax’s shout spurred us on the last few feet. As we cleared a row of trees, and entered a small clearing, Kalliah gasped.

All of us stopped dead in our tracks.

Dark ones littered the open area like locusts. Hundreds of them stood behind a tall, hooded figure. There were more than we could ever defeat alone. But I would not be deterred. From the way the others stood their ground, neither would they.

An evil laugh cackled loudly from the figure, as they stepped to the side, revealing Hale holding a dagger to Lana’s throat. Fear etched into every part of her body, and my heart stopped.

“Hale,” I screamed. “If you have harmed her…” Fury engulfed my entire body. “You will pray for death.”

“Release the queen,” Corbin yelled beside me. Thorny vines shot out from around his feet toward the closest group of dark ones.

The figure removed his hood, and the midnight hair beneath shone glossy, reflecting in the moonlight. Andras.

He cackled loudly again. “Release her? Never. She is ours .”

“I swear on the Fates themselves, if you harm her, there is nowhere you can hide where I will not find you,” I said furiously. “Whether in this world or the next.” My hand twitched at my side, and instinctively I drew my blade from my back and over my shoulder. “It will not just be your body I destroy. It will be your very soul.”

Andras’s eyes narrowed as he stalked forward a few steps, braver with the army of dark ones behind him. “I am a loyal servant. One who has no fears for the words of a Fae so easily swayed by his heart. Come, Kade Blackthorn, try to make good on your threats.”

He raised his arms above his head as lightning cracked in the night sky. The dark ones jumped from foot to foot behind him. Agitated and waiting for a fight. Crazed.

I ran forward only to abruptly slam into a solid invisible barrier. My eyes went wide, staring the short distance to Lana while realizing I couldn’t reach her.

“No!” I tore at the barrier, the impossible wall I couldn’t see.

Andras laughed again. “As you can see, my loyal devotion is rewarded with gifts, like shields. Shields from weak men before”—he twirled his pointer finger around in a circle, staring like a starved man at the gem on his finger—“now made strong when multiplied.”

I shouted, an unintelligible sound coming from the base of the tether inside of me. “This is your last warning. Release Illiana now, or prepare to die.”

He grinned in response. “Idle threats don’t look good on you. I was just going to take her and leave, but it would be so much more entertaining to watch you fight my dark ones. You can watch while I play with her.”

I slammed a fist against the barrier with a force that shook the ground. An inky shadow spilled from my fingers, and I smirked at the man in front of me. “Looks like your poison is wearing thin.”

“It won’t matter,” he taunted. “Attack,” he shouted at the dark ones behind him.

On his command, they raced forward, having no trouble getting through the shield from their side. They descended on us. Swords clashed and clanged, but my sight remained trained on Andras except for the brief moments I took to ensure Hale hadn’t hurt Lana.

He stood there, arm shaking so badly I could see it from here. Lana’s concentration focused solely on the man she called a friend at her side.

I needed her to look at me. Just once. Darkness tapped at my mind, knowing how easily I would let it seep into me if it promised her safety.

Extending my arm, I called forth my blade of shadows and sliced at the barrier. I heard it before I saw it. A tiny crack. A feral smile overtook me as I watched Andras’s glee falter.

“Casimir, reinforce the shield,” Andras bellowed.

Hale twitched next to where Andras stood, his dagger lowering to his side. Lana made a move to run toward me, but Andras grabbed Hale’s shoulder. “Keep her here at any cost.”

Casimir threw his arms to the side, grabbing two soldiers who collapsed momentarily under his touch. Then two more, until strands of visible magic coiled around him. He touched Andras next, the magic seeping into the ring, and the shield pulsed.

The triumphant smirk returned.

“Do you think there is any magic in this kingdom that would keep me from her?” I yelled, hitting the shield again. “You will never have her again.”

“Kade!” Lana yelled, and I saw Hale tug her back to Andras’s side by her fucking hair.

The control I barely held on to snapped. A darkness I had never given into willingly seeped through my shadows, curling around them inside of me. The fight they normally put up against this darker magic evaporated, as even they welcomed the fresh new power into them. Fusing with them.

All for her .

Illiana Dresden was mine. No Fae in this Fates-damned world would keep her from me, especially not a conniving coward like Andras.

A familiar heat flared at my back, and I pulled my attention away from Andras and Lana for the first time since arriving. My gaze collided with Storm’s.

“I’m here,” he yelled over the fight with the dark ones. He knew.

He noticed, as he always did, the warning signs of danger those few moments before chaos spilled from me. He would protect the others.

I sliced my shadow blade down in one final stroke, opening another crack in Andras’s shield.

Then I reached for the power nestled inside of me. I unleashed my magic alongside the darkness I always feared. Freely. Unhindered.

And let myself erupt.