Page 5 of Shadows of Ruin (The Broken Prophecy #2)

Chapter 4

Ian

M y escape plan was currently fucked.

I’d been hanging from these chains for hours. Hands tied over my head, complete with shackles around my feet. Not vines like Andras used outside, but thick steel chains.

“Still with me, Captain?” Andras chuckled as he rolled his neck languidly in front of me.

Somehow, despite the exhaustion and pain shooting through my body from the various fists accosting me, I managed a cheeky grin. “Don’t tell me you’re tired already?”

The vile man grabbed my cheeks with one hand, shaking my head. “That mouth has always been your downfall.” He squeezed hard, then took a step back, rolling up his sleeve. He withdrew a dagger from a velvet purple pouch.

As he removed it, the edges and tip glistened with a black liquid-like substance.

I had seen a blade like this once before. Lana had been stabbed with one similar, years ago in this same room.

I refused to reveal any sort of recognition of the weapon before me.

“Do you have memories of the last time I used this particular blade?” Andras purred, twisting the weapon in front of his face as if admiring it.

I cocked an eyebrow. “I make it a point not to dwell on anything you do, Andras. None of it being very memorable.”

Andras stepped forward and the sharpened blade’s cold steel traced along my neck. He dragged it just enough to sting. I didn’t look away from Andras as he continued the surface-level scratch he inflicted. A warning.

“All this mock bravery when I know you’ll break, Captain,” he said. His eyes widened in glee as he looked me over. He jerked, pulling back before he slammed his ringed fist into the side of my face. It wasn’t his first hit, but this time, he split skin.

“That hasn’t worked for a few hours now, I would have thought you’d try something else.” I spit, noticing the tinge of red on the floor.

That cruel smile spread over his face. “Always pining after her. Doesn’t it bother you that your unyielding love is misplaced in a woman who would never return such affections?”

I matched his cruel grin with my own. Andras didn’t understand. If he thought acting as though I wanted Lana as a lover was the way to torture me, he must be desperate. “A bit childish of a tactic for a man wishing to be king, don’t you think?”

Andras gripped the blade and slashed it down the length of my arm, deep. I clenched my jaw, refusing to make a sound.

He clicked his tongue. “Already weakening, and I haven’t even unleashed all of the power gifted to me yet.”

“Magic can’t be gifted,” I said. Blood dripped down my shoulder from the open wound. The first sign my body had weakened after the hours I’d spent down here—my healing power was significantly lessened.

Something in my arm burned. A pain far sharper than what a normal blade should produce. I tried to hide the agony as it grew.

Andras tilted his head back, laughing. “You think you know so much, Captain. You were kept in the dark by the king about what’s happening in Brookmere, and yet you somehow think you’re enlightened as to what true power is capable of doing. A war you know nothing about has been brewing for centuries.”

True power?

I jerked at the restraints, filled with a primal need to switch the narrative and hold him at knifepoint to learn more.

He lifted the blade, pointing its tip at the edge of the laceration on my arm and pushing it into my flesh, digging before twisting it around inside the open wound.

“The king was the most powerful Fae in all of Brookmere. You pale in comparison,” I said through gritted teeth. “Is that why you’re so upset? Why you need Lana? Trouble getting the Fae to follow a weakling?”

He dug in again, deep enough to feel the rush of more blood and damn it, I couldn’t hold back an audible hiss.

“The king was not the most powerful Fae in Brookmere.” He scraped the knife along the cut, like he’d actually decided to skin me. Nausea clawed at my throat, but I forced it down. “My power, my rights come from someone far more adept.”

I had to keep him talking. Whatever nonsense he believed could hold the key to what he planned, even if he did sound deranged. No Fae had been more powerful than the king.

His face fell into a blank stare as if he’d expected me to have slipped up and revealed something by now. “Where is Kade Blackthorn from?” Andras asked.

I’d riled him, and now he tried to hide it. He nodded to the two guards who’d accompanied him down here, and they moved to either side of me.

“You should ask him yourself,” I answered .

A hit from the right struck me in my gut. The guard snickered. Andras flipped the knife in front of me. “Ah.” His lip curled. “So it’s not merely the incompetence of my people. You didn’t find anything on him either. Interesting.”

I didn’t bother acknowledging the jab. I knew all too well there was nothing to be found about Kade or his power. Another piece of this puzzle I’d figure out as soon as I freed myself from this cell.

He nodded, and I took two blows in quick succession, one to my gut and another to my face.

Andras reached forward, ripping my shirt down. I jerked against the restraints, desperate to attack him with some part of me. To destroy him. He twirled the tip of the blade above my heart, letting it prick my skin as he did.

“Where would she have run to? Any name, any place she knew of will do.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I spat.

He stabbed the knife in, breaking the skin and dragging it down. I shouted, unable to bite back this time from the injury.

“You will talk. One way or another.”

I shook my head, the pain ricocheting through my entire body. At some point they’d be forced to bring in a healer.

I continued taunting the man in front of me, even through the pain. It served as the distraction I needed to hold on to my sanity down here.

“It must be infuriating knowing a woman with no magic bested you.” I smiled, taking another punch to my jaw. It felt like almost nothing after the gashes the knife had inflicted. “A woman you deemed inferior.”

Another punch.

This one hit too close to my ribs, knocking the air from my lungs, but I refused to stop. “A woman you thought you broke.”

Crack.

That hit broke my nose .

Andras held up his hands, leaning down toward my face. “Your princess left you next to her dead father. She fled. Without you.”

His words held no power over me. I would rather he broke every bone in my body than give him the satisfaction of my reaction.

“She ran off with a man she knew for a few weeks instead of staying by the side of the man she’s known her entire life. Your loyalty, Captain Stronholm, is grossly misplaced.”

With a nod, the guards standing by used me as a punching bag. I lost track of the hits. The pain morphed into a near-constant, blinding sensation, taking over all of my senses. When Andras raised his hand to halt their punishment, I could only see out of one eye.

Despite the bruises sure to mar my body and the blood cascading along my skin, dripping in too many places, I smiled at him. “She will have my loyalty forever,” I wheezed, spitting blood at his feet. “No matter what you throw at us, you’ve never broken us. I won’t break now or ever. You’ll lose.”

“We’ll need Maria to handle speeding up the healing process so he can be questioned again,” Andras said to the guards. “Leave his feet bound but take off the chains.”

They jimmied the lock at my wrist, and I collapsed in a heap onto the floor.

“Until next time, Captain Stronholm.” He turned, storming away from my cell.

Time passed in unmeasurable quantities. Maria hadn’t come yet.

The flickering lights of the torches remained illuminated, never dimming thanks to the magic in them. Was it minutes or was it hours I spent in solitude? I had no way of knowing.

Eventually, I inched away from the bloodied spot they’d left me in. A flicker of magic within me stirred to life, seeking out the worst of my wounds .

I would heal. I would live. I would face Andras with Lana by my side, destroying him once and for all.

Sensing movement in the shadows of the cell, I tensed. Turning my head slowly, I faced the darkest corner. My blond hair covered my face, practically black now with matted blood and grime.

A sharp thud cracked on the stone, and a spiky tail emerged before the rest of the body appeared. Lucien wagged his deadly tail as he pranced toward me on his stubby legs.

How he traveled throughout this palace unnoticed always remained a mystery to me, but right now, his eerie abilities had me feeling grateful.

“Lucien.” I held out my hand and the pugron came over immediately. He nuzzled his head into my side, puffing out a hot steam of breath. Thankfully, fireless.

“Am I glad to see you,” I whispered.

The beast looked up at me expectantly. “She’s not here,” I told him. I might be the only one who believed Lucien understood us, so I’d be damned if I ignored what years of watching him with Lana had revealed. “If you ever loved Lana, you have to help me get out of here."

A small puff of smoke erupted from the pugron’s snout. Like he agreed with me.

“Is Kalliah in the palace?”

The small puff turned into a volcano of smoke.

“Do you know where Lana is?”

This time he blew a stream of fire to the side, his eyes drooping like a lost animal.

Smart boy. Smoke for yes, fire for no.

I frowned. “You must find Kalliah. Find a way to tell her where I am. See if she can help.”

Lucien backed away, spewing steam. His gaze never left mine as he trotted toward the wall, disappearing from my sight.

“Please, let the pugron do as I said,” I whispered .

In the meantime, I had to plan. To plot. Not just an escape, but where to run. Somewhere I could use as a base to begin my search for Lana.

I closed my eyes, leaning against the cool stone of the inner wall of my cell.

It was a different game down here than before. This time, I was the main attraction.

Andras may be powerful, but he’d underestimated me like he always had.

How I’d escape, I didn’t know. But when I did, the Fates themselves would pay. They might play by their own set of rules and prophecies, whispered and told in secret passings for only the blessed to hear.

But I, too, could play by my own rules. Bound by nothing and no one except for the loyalty to the ones I loved.

So if playing dirty was what it would take, then Fates be damned.

For I’d stop at nothing to win this cursed game. Not a soul would stop me.

And every last Fae, Fate, and speck of nature would pay tenfold if Lana was harmed before I got to her again.