Page 2 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter two

Zane

“ Q ueen’s guard incoming!” Scarlett screams. “Northwest!”

“Protect the survivors,” I call to our Spiders. We form up around the charred and bleeding citizens who have no idea that we are in fact protecting them from the guard.

The clank of armor is as loud as the blaze in my harried, sleep-deprived head. The guard appears between burning buildings with weapons drawn, their golden faceplates writhing with black shadows that repel the light of the fire.

The company spreads out and comes to a stop.

“You can’t have them!” Scarlett yells.

We hang in a moment of palpable tension. The seconds before combat where kinetic energy culminates in my muscles and mind.

Scarlett’s spindles twitch. “You’ll lose your puppets,” she calls out, and I realize she’s taken Alyse’s power—she’s communicating with the queen.

She launches forward, her urictsa dagger gripped tight in her fist. Communication is over.

I follow quickly behind her, launching a spear of my magic at the first guard’s raised sword. It hits with a powerful ting that throws his blade back, giving Scarlett an opening to bury her dagger in his faceplate. The darkness leaks out of the guard’s mask as he goes down choking on his blood.

The two guards flanking her turn in unison, their weapons coming down in opposing arcs.

She pushes off the dead man with all her spindles, leaping into the air with the grace of an arachnid queen as she avoids their strikes.

I slice through the left guard’s armor at the neck.

His head goes tumbling to the ground, a spray of blood and darkness coating the golden metal of his back.

The citizens behind us scream in panic.

“Keep them calm!” I shout over my shoulder to our soldiers.

Scarlett comes down on the other guard, knees braced against his shoulders as she slams her dagger into his neck to the hilt.

He collapses, and she leaps off him to the next man.

I whirl to the other six enemies on my left and block a strike with my own urictsa blade, ensuring I keep my spindles far from his sword.

Aleks throws a fistful of black powder at the enemy behind mine and ignites it with a snap of his flint-covered fingers.

The particles erupt in the guard’s face and the darkness retreats from their hollow eyes.

The man screams and stumbles back. I use my spindles to shove my opponent into his path and they both go down in a tangle of shiny limbs.

Aleks cleans up the two on the ground as I move on to the remaining four.

They form a diamond and slowly back away, weapons raised in defensive positions.

Golden drips of magic fall from the sky and splash against us all.

Suddenly, the black mist of the queen’s power dissolves, leaving the guards alone with their fear as they stare us down.

Scarlett raises her dagger beside me. “The queen is manipulating you! Don’t go back to her. She will get you killed. ”

Kazimir and Alyse land in the passage back to the palace, blocking the guard’s retreat.

“ Your people need help. ” Alyse’s voice slithers through my body like a snake and I know she’s communicated to everyone in the square through her power. “ The queen will only kill them. Help us save them. ”

The rear guard turns toward Alyse, weapons raised with a scream of madness. In a whooshing strike, Kazimir extends his scythe and a spray of crimson mists the air from the man’s neck. The guard crumples, his armor clanking as his body goes limp.

The three remaining guards tighten, back to back.

“Leave them alone!” a voice cries from the survivors in the square.

We look like villains.

“Back off,” I say to the Spiders.

Aleks and his soldiers retreat several steps, leaving Scarlett and I facing down the three men.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Alyse says, her meek voice hardly carrying over the roar of flames.

Reina and Jasper shout orders in the square, commanding the remaining Spiders. Fire crackles around us, and the survivors wail at our backs as the guards pant, waiting for us to attack. Sweat slips down my back and I fight the urge to wipe my brow.

Scarlett growls beside me. “I’d rather do away with the guards and be back on the task of saving citizens.”

“But optics …” I retract my spindles, immediately feeling vulnerable. I raise my voice and step forward. “The queen set these fires to lure the strongest magi into her grasp.”

The metal heads snap toward me.

“You know what happens in the bowels of the palace,” I say.

The guards murmur to each other .

“You’re wasting time!” Reina screams as she blazes overhead, fueled by the fires around us. She hovers over the guards. “As your princess, I command you to join us in helping the others.”

“How could you align yourself with these monsters, ” the head of the diamond demands, the brow behind his helm pinched in disgust.

The fire seems to undulate with Reina’s magic, pulsing across her skin. “They’re my sisters, and we’re monsters because Mother made us this way.”

She raises her hand, poised to spit armor-melting flame. “Help, or I’ll end you now.”

I suck in a sharp breath at the gamble. This could land us in deeper shit than the palace sewers.

The lead guard slowly lowers his sword. The others protest, but he sheathes. “What can I do, Princess Reina?”

“Take the people in the square to safety in the Underbelly,” I say, pointing toward the black-smudged survivors huddling behind us.

The guard locks gazes with me, his brown eyes twinkling with flames. A beat passes between us and then he nods his soldiers forward.

“Aleks, guide them to Scarlett’s stronghold,” I say, and the blond boy dips his head in confirmation.

He rounds up his soldiers, and together with the queen’s guard, they corral the scared, huddled masses toward the east gatehouse. I look at Scarlett. Her expression is masked, and dark. I know she can still hear me—that Alyse’s power hums inside her—because the runes on her arm burn gold.

I love you.

Her lips quirk in a tiny smile and she mouths, “You too. ”

“There’re twenty more blocks to go!” I shout at the remaining Spiders. “And our citizens need us!”

The black-clad soldiers shout in unison. “Yes, sir!”

Lily and Alastair join us in the firefighting, carrying huge swells of seawater in from the port to douse the areas closest to the wharf, and the rest of us soldier on through the morning, dragging unconscious and screaming citizens from burning buildings.

What an ally the Bull’s son would’ve made for this activity. If he truly could’ve learned to control the flame, the city could’ve been extinguished in mere minutes. Another wasted life. I should’ve kept him.

The smoke stings my eyes, and the scent of scorched flesh adds a putridity to the air that pulls me back from the past. By midday, the fires are out.

Scarlett reaches into her pouch and cycles through vial after vial, finding them all empty.

There are dark circles under her eyes, and smudges of ash cover her exposed skin.

Her braid is frayed and singed. She needs to rest, but I know she won’t. Not yet.

I step up beside her and drag my knife across a small, scarred patch on my wrist. Her gaze meets mine, her empty left socket hollow with a barely there glow of teal magic. She grabs my arm gingerly and brings my wrist to her mouth to drink.

Her lips seal over my bloody skin and my stomach tightens with yearning. She hums and her eyes fall shut as her grip tightens on my arm. She sucks harder, drawing from me until she sighs in contentment.

She licks the wound as she pulls away, her tongue glowing teal as she seals the cut.

“Better?” I ask, thumbing a smear of blood from the corner of her mouth.

She nods. “Thank you. ”

The wails of the rescued break through my stupor and spur me back into action. “The queen will be performing whatever ritual she had planned soon.”

Scarlett straightens up. “Alyse, we need intel.”

We stand in silence for a moment, Scarlett conversing with her sister mentally across who knows what distance.

Alastair steps into our circle with a slumbering Lily clutched in his grasp. “What’s next?” he says in a quiet rumble.

“Presently figuring it out,” I say, crossing my arms as I watch Scarlett’s brow furrow and teeth clench.

Reina and Jasper join us. “We need to set up aid stations and temporary housing,” she says.

“Food is going to be an issue, as well,” Jasper adds.

There’s too much for Scarlett and me to be in charge of everything. I turn to Reina. “Find Aleks. He should be at Scarlett’s building. There’s limited space in the Underbelly to house all these people, but I’m sure you two will figure something out together.”

I look at Jasper next. “We have storehouses of dried and preserved goods; Rivera will know where. Organize a hunting party to go south for game.”

I turn to Alastair. “With winter approaching, we’ll need to stock up. Send a message to your mother. Whatever she can spare, have Emillia Alejandra bring it up to us.”

“What about the queen?” he asks.

“She’s just holding them,” Scarlett says. “The people she managed to corral into the slaughterhouse are just sitting in there. Alyse says they all seem scared but feel safe.”

“What’s she doing with them?” I mumble.

“She might be waiting for another celestial alignment event,” Alastair says .

“But why?” Jasper asks.

“The eclipse blocked the light of the sun,” Reina says. “It might have amplified her powers for the duration.”

“Why not perform the rituals at night?” I ask.

Reina chews her lip. “She does, almost exclusively. There must’ve been something else about the eclipse.”

We stand in silence for a moment.

“Jasper, any news from your sister on the translation of the dark book?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Nothing beyond the initial pages which include a cipher.”

I take a deep breath and let my shoulders fall away from my ears.

“Here’s how I see it. Our priority needs to be helping the displaced citizens and preparing for the load they’ll put on our resources.

I’m certain we’ve suffered losses and have undoubtedly earned ourselves a few new spies and assassins south of the wall.

“We need to pull back and be vigilant, reinforce our defenses, and manage our deceased. We need to gather more information about what the queen plans to do with her captives and when.”

“We’ll manage the last item,” Alyse says into my head.

“Anything to add?” I ask, looking first to Scarlett.

The conclave shakes their heads around me, save Lily, who’s still asleep. She’d drained herself to unconsciousness pulling in seawater. We’re all exhausted, myself included. I need to organize sleeping shifts with Gareth.

“All right.” I nod. “Get yourselves a drop of wakefulness and let’s get it done.”