Page 6 of Shadows of Ruin (The Broken Prophecy #2)

Chapter 5

Kade

“ W hy did they think your shadows would kill me?”

Lana’s damn body threatened to kill me at the moment. The bite in her words did nothing to deter my wayward thoughts. Instead, her fire drew me in further, which wasn’t ideal seeing as she’d taken over too many of my senses already.

I gripped the horse's reins harder, not caring that it caused my forearm to tighten around her hips.

“I told you before, they don’t play. They destroy.” I exhaled, failing to mask my smile as I recalled a very memorable evening in her bedroom when she teased me about the deadly magic I commanded.

Silence fell between us. Knowing her, it wouldn’t last.

We rode in front of the others, steering the four horses toward Mount Legion. Four horses, even though Jax and Raya both knew the whole purpose of crossing into Brookmere was to fulfill the damned prophecy. A prophecy calling for a queen, which meant clearly we’d need five horses upon our return.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling Lana stiffen as my body pressed against hers. No doubt she could feel exactly what her ass rubbing against my fucking cock did to me. There was no give, no space between us. Desperate to keep her from feeling uncomfortable, I tried to think of anything else. My father. Cassandra wearing that horrifically sheer silver dress at the Festival of Swords six years ago.

My desire shriveled. Now I just needed to keep it together from here on out.

Fates, Lana should have ridden with Storm. Or Jax. Hell, even Raya would have been a better option. Should have, but I knew myself enough to know it wouldn’t have gone well. A vise tightened around my chest at the thought of her pressed up against Storm or Jax in this way.

What the hell was wrong with me? I stretched my neck, somehow believing that might snap some sense into me.

But I was beyond common sense when it came to my Little Rebel. Besides, no part of me felt comfortable with her anywhere except close to me now that we were in Mysthaven.

“Why am I here, Kade?” she sighed, breaking the quiet as I knew she would. “Why bother to take me at all?”

It took more willpower than I cared to admit not to brush a thumb along her thigh to provide her with some sort of reassurance. Even if I was the last man she’d want to accept it from right now.

“I have to see someone before I can give you the answers you are looking for. I do not want to say the wrong thing or mislead you any more than I already have.”

“Say the wrong thing?” Lana huffed incredulously. “You are content with killing my father, hurting Ian, kidnapping me, but you are worried about saying something that might, what? Hurt my feelings?”

“Illiana—”

“No, don’t Illiana me. You are a monster.” She huffed loudly. “I need to get back to Brookmere. Regardless of what you think you need me for, my kingdom needs me more. I must see?— ”

Her words died, and my fucking worthless soul split at the tremor she tried to hide. The sound of her heartbreak dug into me worse than the king’s damn whip.

I wanted to comfort her, needed to. But with what? I had no idea what her real purpose was in the grand scheme of things. Fucking seers and their prophecies.

“I have to put eyes on my mother. And Ian,” she finished her earlier thought. Her comment was said more to herself than to me.

“We should talk about what you thought you saw with your father.” Dread pooled in my gut, knowing there was a very real possibility nothing I said would garner her forgiveness. “Please let me explain.”

Lana whipped her face around, smacking me with her hair as she turned. “I don’t think I saw anything. You killed the king. My father. I know what I saw. Your dagger in his heart. Your shadows around his neck while he lay in my arms. What more is there to talk about, Kade?”

“You need to listen to me. Your father came to me, he wanted to protect you—” I stopped. If I went down that road, she’d blame herself and live with more guilt than she already carried. “He knew Andras would try to have Casimir siphon his magic. He knew?—”

“No,” she whispered.

“I know this is hard to hear, but you have to let me try.” I tightened my hold on the reins once more, drawing them closer, merely to feel like I could hold her while explaining. My shadows curled around her hips, resting on her legs as if they could help her through this.

She didn’t make a move or show discomfort at their touch. Thank Fates. It gave me a second, a selfish damn second to feel warmth spread through me. The strange sensation I only felt around Lana. I didn’t realize how desperately I craved it until I’d gone a mere couple of hours without it.

“Your father didn’t want them to siphon his power. He asked me to do it, to end his life so they wouldn’t get his magic?—”

“Stop,” she commanded. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“His focus was on protecting the kingdom,” I pressed. “If they had obtained his magic in his weakened state, even briefly?—”

“My father would never have asked for death over facing an enemy.” Her body shook, and I didn’t know if it was from anger or grief. “You make him sound cowardly.”

“Cowardly?” I sighed. “No, he may be the bravest man I’ve ever met.”

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, now shivering in front of me. My shadows thickened where they held her legs, like they were trying to pour into her somehow.

I didn’t think there was anything left to break inside of me, yet my chest tightened with anguish.

"I can’t imagine how hard this is, but you have to understand. You have no idea how sorry I am. I wish I could take it back. I wish there had been another way, another moment to think.”

“But there’s not. Because you murdered him in my arms,” she shouted, breaking the quiet around us, her voice cracking on the final word.

She let out a painful sob before she shoved her elbow into my stomach. Wheezing, I gripped her thigh, falling forward.

Lana huffed. “This is only the beginning of the pain I plan to inflict on you, Kade Blackthorn.” She briskly wiped her hand across her cheek, whisking away the tears there. “Mark my words.”

“Stopping here for the night!” Raya shouted, halting the line of horses.

Lana jumped from the horse without hesitation before I could say anything more. Jax grabbed the bags mounted to the animals containing our supplies and threw one to Lana. Inclining his head, he and Lana left the horses to set up the tents.

Quickly and quietly, we worked to establish our temporary campground for the evening. Lana observed every interaction with a keen eye, no doubt looking for any possible piece of information to hold against us later.

I stood outside my now finished tent, unable to stop studying her. Her entire demeanor exuded wariness. Her discomfort tugged at something deep within. Something I’d long since believed dead. The spark Lana elicited from me had been life-altering, reforming my blackened heart around something else. Her.

Being back here in this loathsome kingdom, closer to him , threatened to disrupt the pieces of me that had slowly begun mending during my time in Brookmere. Though I could handle guilt and doing things I loathed here, watching Lana look like a prisoner, at my hands no less, wasn’t something I could stomach.

She looked at the tent to her right as Raya finished putting up the one they would share. Her body tensed before she shifted, rubbing her arms and staring at the small space. Lana hadn’t been alone since the travesty of the final trial, and I could only imagine some time to herself would be helpful. Even necessary. At some point she had to grieve.

As if she were a bloody razorven, I approached slowly. “Here, take mine,” I said, waving my hand behind me toward my tent. She needed this space. I couldn’t let her go home, but I could try to give her a reprieve from being surrounded by strangers. “Jax and I can share a tent for the evening. But do not try to escape. It’s not safe.”

Jax approached holding two pieces of bread in his hands. His gaze darted between the two of us, searching for something in that obnoxious way he usually did, always seeing more than any of us wanted.

Lana nodded silently and strode toward the entrance .

“Great, I get to room with His Moodiness—hey!” Jax yelped as Lana swiped a hunk of bread from his hand before escaping to the privacy of my tent.

She jerked the tent flaps closed. An inky tendril of shadow crawled along the ground toward the tent, hovering outside. My shadows weren’t burdened with a fear of her rejection. Perhaps I could feed from their confidence and pray to the Fates she would forgive me one day.

I yanked at the magic, willing it to return, but it failed me. Instead, they stretched farther from me as I gave up and moved to the campfire Storm had created. Part of me screamed to stay with the shadows and say something to her, but the guilt threatening to overtake me wouldn’t help.

I needed to focus. Away from Lana and this ache inside of me.

“Do you have spare clothes?” I asked Raya. “A cloak, something. She’s not dressed for traveling. We had to leave Brookmere unexpectedly.”

Raya narrowed her gaze at me, her lip curling, but stormed off, retrieving a dark cloak and throwing it in Lana's tent before she returned.

Inhaling deeply, a small moment of relief settled into my bones as I sat before the fire. I was finally back with my friends. The few I could trust implicitly. While I knew we each had stories to tell, I savored this one moment of normalcy before the chaos of fulfilling the prophecy continued.

Slowly, each of my friends gathered, reunited again for the first time in months.

A soft snore filled the air, reaching us from Lana’s tent as we sat in silence, chewing the days-old bread, until Jax finally broke the quiet.

“So, brother, are we going to talk about the princess snoring in your tent, or shall she remain yet another mystery to solve?”

Storm chuckled from across the fire .

“What are you laughing at?” I snapped.

“Oh, I’m more than happy to tell Jax and Raya all about our adventures in Brookmere. I think they will be particularly intrigued to know about your escapades these last few months.”

Raya sat silently, shaking her head, already annoyed. She always had little patience for our banter, just wanting the facts as quickly as possible.

“Well, friends,” Storm began, leaning in, “let me tell you a tale of a land far away, where we met a fair maiden in the woods. Kade held her at knife point, and then tried to win her hand in the deadliest marriage trials I’ve ever heard of. Trials that would have led to Kade becoming the King of Brookmere.”

Jax had taken a swig of water and promptly spit it everywhere. “ Marriage trials?”

“But it doesn’t stop there,” Storm continued.

Sparks flew toward the sky in an impressive display as Raya rolled her eyes at Storm’s theatrics.

Jax flicked the knife he had been using to cut the bread in his hand, waiting. “Come on, what happened next.”

“You’re a child,” Raya huffed.

Storm laughed, some of the tension from the day fading away. “The icing on the honey cake from our time away, besides me having to hunt him down after he spent the night with our dear princess, had to be watching him attempt to flirt. It’s been eons since he has tried to woo a lady, and it was…awkward as fuck. Disastrous.”

“Apparently not disastrous enough to keep them apart.” Jax grinned.

I growled. “Enough.”

“Yes, enough,” Raya said sharply. “If you're going to take all day to get to what matters, I’ll start on our end. You have been gone too long and our list of excuses ran dry weeks ago. We must return to the palace. ”

The humor faded instantly, drying up to die, like the land around us. Returning to the palace was unavoidable. My eyes darted toward my tent where Lana slept, shadows pulsing, wanting to keep her far away from the king. Raya’s chocolate eyes bore into me until I met hers.

“I know we do,” I said. “I’m sorry for the pressures you were left with.”

“There is going to be hell to pay since you haven’t been here to enforce the king’s psychotic laws.” Raya stared deep into my eyes. “It’s getting worse.”

“I already apologized,” I said a little harsher this time, refusing to break Raya’s stare.

Storm cleared his throat, apparently sensing the mounting violence filling the space between us. “I am going to train with Lana. We need her sharp, ready. Ian taught her well, so it will not be hard to hone her skills further.”

“Train her so she’s more capable of stabbing him?” Raya pointed exasperatedly at me. "All while we’re also fighting against the king? Brilliant plan, Storm.”

“She’s already able to stab him,” Storm said. Raya frowned at the comment and Jax shook his head in silent disbelief. I merely shrugged.

Storm stretched his arms over his head, cracking his back and staring me down. “He wouldn’t even fight back at this point.”

My jaw twitched as I clenched it hard. “Your point?”

“She needs to know everything. Including why you killed her father.”

“What?” Raya gasped.

Jax stared, mouth agape.

I glared at my best friend, knowing full well he was not only going to make me face my guilt, face Lana, and handle this, but also ensure our friends knew exactly what happened in Brookmere. All at once.

“He begged me to,” I said, clenching my hands into fists as dark shadows built around me, like they could somehow protect me from my own guilt.

“Which you need to tell her ,” he insisted.

“I tried.”

“Try harder,” Storm countered, unwilling to accept my retort.

“Fates save us.” Jax ran a hand over his face.

Storm’s menacing gaze broke from mine, softening as a smile spread over his lips. “The princess says ‘tits and daggers’ when she curses.”

Jax whimpered, clasping his chest. “It’s perfect.”

“You’re not to train her,” Raya said, once again interrupting the two with a simmering anger. “She’ll kill him.”

Storm’s eyes flicked toward me. History told us all there would be no winning this battle tonight; Raya rarely backed down when she was in a good mood, let alone in her current state.

“It’s not up to you,” Storm said quietly before he rose, trudging back to his tent. He waved Raya off as she stood next to the fire, hands on her hip. I didn’t miss her bending down toward a pile of rocks.

Storm was right about one thing, Lana needed to train in order to survive here in Mysthaven. Selfishly, I wanted to be the one to train her. My shadows stretched taught, hovering toward my tent, demanding to be near her. They would want to train with her, too. Impossible to do if she wouldn’t talk to me. Which would clearly continue if I couldn’t find a way to tell her about her father.

“Have you been able to bolster the rebellion?” I asked Jax.

He grunted. “Without the Monster of Mysthaven around, people have seemed more willing to listen.”

I sighed, lowering my head. “They need to be willing to risk it, even upon my return if we have any hope of them being brave enough to stand up to the king.”

My questions ceased when Raya stilled, dropping the rock she had picked up to throw in Storm’s direction. Her head hung low, and when she raised it once more, her eyes reflected a shimmering white hue.

“Fuck, not now,” I muttered.

Raya stiffened, her entire body frozen for a few moments more, before her eyes returned to their normal chestnut brown. Her gaze connected with my own.

“He knows you’ve returned.” She swallowed a deep breath before continuing. “He’s made the decision for us.”

Jax rose as well, nearing Raya’s side. “What do you mean, made the decision for us?”

“We’ve been ordered to go to Canyon City before returning to the palace. A group of traitors were discovered creating a plan to cross the void. The king wants the leader dealt with. Now.”

My mind spun, working the pieces together like we always had done when instructed to deal with traitors. I should have known coming back here would mean an immediate task. “We’ll go at dawn,” I said grimly.

Raya didn’t relax her gaze, appearing uncharacteristically nervous. “Publicly, Kade. He wants it done in the city square.”

Jax cursed under his breath before walking toward the tent we’d share. I closed my eyes, steeling my emotions, locking them away as Raya moved to her own space. The man I’d become in Brookmere couldn’t exist here. The man Lana allowed me to be wouldn’t help us.

I inhaled slowly, opening my eyes and snuffing out the campfire with my shadows, just like I’d smother the part of me that had sparked alive these past few months. It was the only way to allow me to unleash the side of me lying dormant so I could become the monster the king had created me to be.

The monster Illiana believed me to be.

The Monster of Mysthaven.