Page 11 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter ten

Lily

W e might die tonight.

The thrill of it has my skin tingling.

Or maybe that’s the cold winter air whipping against my face.

I lean down against Alastair’s back. His wings thump loudly on either side of me, a comfort from my dreary inner monologue.

The pack shifts on my back, the massive crystal infused with Reina’s magic humming its low tune.

Who knew the ancient cave-dwelling eksteinvas were more than myth and legend, let alone so useful?

We’ve been using Reina-infused crystals for months against the queen’s little drones, but those were tiny, easy for her to fill up with magic. The one in my pack is different. This one is goddess-ending size.

Hopefully.

Alastair banks around the outer cliffs of the Fynish Straight and we approach the palace from the north.

A wave slaps against the black rocks below us, but the crash is minimal.

There’s a cave along the waterline that can only be entered at low tide.

Both Eyzanth and Nol’Ther have set for the night, and dawn will break soon.

It’s the perfect time to attack.

We drop low and I brace myself for my own flight. I want to use my wings, but Alastair said it would be too much magic. He’s right, of course, but it still peeves me. What fun is the end of the world if you can’t fly when you have wings?

“Get ready,” he says, his demonic voice deep and thrilling. I love when he talks to me in demon tone.

But now’s not the time for lust.

It’s time for war.

The cave comes into view in the low light. I leap, claws out, and throw Kazimir’s ward blocker against the wall. The queen’s magic shimmers in response. I land against the side of the cliff with a thud and dig in, anchoring myself.

I throw the other two ward blockers at the top and bottom of the cave, creating a triangular opening I can fit through.

Alastair lands above me with an earth-shaking thud, sending rocks scattering down around me.

“Be quick,” he whispers.

“Oh, no, I’m going to take my time,” I say with a broad grin.

He grunts in irritation. “I love you.”

“And I am going to make love to you, hard, this afternoon.”

I vault into the cave without waiting for his response—I know it was just flushed cheeks and mumbling anyway. My big husband is so adorable.

The scent of the sea is strong here, curling my nose. Dead things wash in at high tide and get stuck when the water flows out, making the ground a mishmash of squish and stone. I place my hand against the wall and begin my trek inward.

We don’t know how deep this tunnel goes, but I’ve saved up all my magic to make it deep enough. Even if I have to claw the last bits of rock apart by hand, I will get this bomb into the Dark Room .

It doesn’t take long for me to find the end of the cave. When I look back, the entrance is still far too close. I shake my head and get to work, commanding the stone to transfigure itself for me.

My green light brightens the space, illuminating all the hard surfaces…

And runes.

My stomach drops as the wall before me glows a malevolent shade of black that eats up my green. Symbols that I read rapid-fire spell my doom. Traps line the entirety of the cave, glowing back to the entrance.

She knew.

I turn and dash toward the exit.

“Alastair!”

He pushes off the wall and hovers, arms open to catch me.

The black magic of Ashai reaches for me like icy tendrils of death. I rebuff them with swiftly drawn shields, but I sense her pushing through. The marks she made on my arms are so cold they burn, and blackness seeps into me.

I scream, flinging myself from the cave mouth into Alastair’s grasp.

I slam into him and he immediately flips, diving for the water.

Alastair pumps his wings, and I watch over his shoulder as Ashai pursues.

The darkness chases after us like a wind bewitched, twisting and turning to gain the edge against us.

“She’s coming,” I cry, my heart thundering in my chest.

Alastair banks around the cliffs and catches a frigid wind off the sea, propelling us up the plateau. Tinks of steel on steel and shouts of combat reach me instantly. I turn and look over my shoulder to see the entire Upper Kingdom in disarray.

It was supposed to be a stealth mission. Thirty Spiders from the south, thirty from the north. They would rescue the captives in the palace in the night, and I would blow up the Dark Room. Ashai would be destroyed.

How foolish of us to think it could be so easy against the goddess of pure evil.

The crystal hums at my back and I worry for the containment. Smaller gems can hold for up to a week, but this is a prototype, our very first success with a larger crystal.

“We need to drop this,” I say against Alastair’s cheek.

“I’m going to fly over the palace,” he says.

We both know it’s a huge risk, but dropping the crystal anywhere else will be an incredible waste. Some damage is something.

But the casualties…

“They have been warned.” Alyse’s voice whispers through my mind, an ever-present watchdog. Her tone sends a shiver down my spine. She’s just not the same girl I knew before school and…she scares me, if I’m being honest. Her time without me, the things she experienced, they changed her.

Kazimir changed her.

“She’s been spotted. Northeast quadrant.”

“Northeast,” I say, certain that Alastair heard the same message from Alyse that I had.

He turns against the wind, and I see the golden spires of the place I once called home.

The lion on the door blazes bright as we drop close the courtyard, causing the guards to scramble.

Alastair pulls out of the dive over the entertainment hall and around the tower of the royal quarters, then swoops into the field north of the archives.

Alyse loved the archives. It was her favorite place. The centuries of records and tomes of stories—

“Will be replaced. What cannot be replaced is our people, our kingdom.”

I swallow hard, shifting the pack to one of my shoulders as we clear the last building and the battlefield is revealed. Streams of black magic spear into the soldiers on the front lines, turning the weaker to her side and killing the resolute.

“Drop it,” Alyse commands.

I hesitate, my throat dry and tight as my eyes burn.

These are our people. All of them. Lumi, and the other rebels pinned down inside. Our home…

“Now, Liliana!”

I shuck the pack from my shoulder and throw it onto the battlefield, praying that Ashai is among them as it’s been reported. The bomb disappears into the night, but I feel it thud to the ground in my chest. My magic is tied to it, and I think Reina felt it, too.

I pull Kazimir’s detonator from my side satchel and hold it close to my chest.

Tell our Spiders to retreat.

“If they run, she’ll know.”

A cold tear carves down my cheek. Are we truly winning like this? Killing our own?

“Sacrifices are essential.”

Sense leaves me as I press the button on the detonator. I can’t hear the din of battle, or feel the cold wind on my face. All I know is the culmination of Reina’s magic bursting free of my containment runes at my own behest…

In the center of our people. Palace guards and Spiders fighting for their lives, for our kingdom. I pray to all the gods and goddesses Ashai is there.

The sky behind me is alight with blue magic, casting rays of power that put our shadows against the clouds. It’s quiet, a low hum ringing throughout the world, and then the rumble starts. Deep, at first, in the tips of my toes. Then a shockwave approaches, my whole body trembling.

A dozen thoughts hit me as the heat does. We’re too close. This device was designed to be detonated underground. Reina’s magic is pure radiance. Will anyone survive this? Did we just scorch the earth the way Ashai was prophesized to?

Fuck.