Page 49 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter forty-five

Adrik

T he queen—Ashai—looms large as we set up our attack. The figures of Spiders and queen’s guard around her are molded in the same darkness, sustained like her. Their onyx obelisk skin is a harsh contrast to the powdery white snow that dusts their shoulders.

I set the next ipsain crystal beside her, knowing that the soldiers will likely die with her when we detonate them. Another sacrifice we must be willing to make to defeat her.

It’s admirable to hold lofty ideals of the hero, and sometimes they serve us.

But heroes rarely win wars without becoming martyrs.

If we all die, Fynren will be thrown back into chaos.

Worse still, if we’re too soft with our approach in an attempt to save a handful of soldiers and Ashai lives, we risk the entire world.

The Spiders knew what they were getting into. They knew they might die fighting for their families’ freedom, their right to live long lives, unblemished by the queen’s hatred and Gaien’s depravity.

I believe in the princesses of ruin. I believe in their husbands. When this is all done, they will fix this kingdom.

The wind howls and flurries of snow whip off the statues, pelting my goggles. I grab my massive rune-etcher and dig into the muddy earth beside the crystal .

Eng for protection in a cone design, building a steady ring of protection around the crystal. Winu for the trigger, to come down at the precise moment it senses Anasia, the symbol made specifically for Reina’s magic. It is the holy writ of her power, and the goddess Zephrom has blessed it so.

This wouldn’t be possible without their interference, and that notion twists my stomach.

Alyse has been quiet, refusing to divulge what happened in the depths of the Nest when she went to destroy Kazimir’s mask.

It would’ve been a boon in this coming fight if our initial attack doesn’t destroy her outright, so she must know something we don’t.

“Ready there, Adrik?” Alastair asks from the other side of the goddess’s legs.

His crystal glows softly, activated and ready to blow this entire area into a crater that will mar the landscape forever.

“Almost,” I say, hurrying to finish my runes.

The wind whips across my face and the palace crumbles behind me. I start at the sound of the rock crashing into the rubble around the archive. Such a horrible loss.

“We will rebuild it,” Alyse whispers to me.

But all those books; the alchemy, the history.

“We will rewrite it.”

I finish my runes and step back, double- then triple-checking that everything is perfectly correct. It is.

I approach Ashai with clammy hands. Nerves spike through my chest, and I take a deep breath as I kneel between her legs. Emillia sets her pack down beside me gently and I open it.

Odiferous acid, herbs, hair, and skin hits the wind and turns it a sallow color. It’s putrid, so of course it will open the gates to the nine hells. I’d expect nothing less from something so foul .

I dig a small cradle in the frosted dirt. Alastair joins me at the epicenter, drawing containment runes around her feet. When she’s forced into this world, she’ll be trapped. We don’t need it for very long, just enough to press the trigger on the ipsain crystals.

Carefully, I pull a small mine from the bag and set it at the bottom of the dirt cradle. I push dirt over it and draw my runes, ensuring that the explosion will propel the liquid in the flask up and out across the statue. Finally, I set the flask on top of it.

That’s it.

We’re ready.

I exhale a heavy breath and look at Emillia. “What do you think about letting me come with you to Wolfsheim?”

She scowls. “You want to talk about this now?”

I shrug. “I figure you’re more likely to say yes. Give me a little hope for the future, you know?”

“Adrik…” She cups my face in her palms. A thousand thoughts war behind her eyes. She does worry that I’m going to die. I think she’s worried she might die, too.

Finally, she sighs. “When we make it out of this, we’ll talk about bringing you home to meet my family.”

I huff a laugh. “Maybe we can still make the tail end of the solstice festival. I hear Wolfsheim celebrates for weeks.”

“We do. It ends with a pretty dance,” she says, her eyes bright with fond memories. That luster fades quickly as she adds, “I never learned it.”

I stop her from pulling away, capturing the back of her neck. “We’ll learn together.”

Her gaze bounces between my eyes, hunting for lies or jest. I know how deep her pain runs, and I know I can overcome it by being consistent. Her anchor when she needs one, her wind when she needs it. I will keep all my promises until she admits what her heart already knows.

“I’m scared,” she whispers.

“I know.”

“They’re all powerful magi, and I can see the color of sounds,” she says with a mirthless chuckle.

I look over my shoulder at the hundreds of Spiders standing in the distance, waiting for whatever fallout comes from opening the nine hells to our realm.

“Some of them are nomaj. They are scared, too. It’s okay to be scared,” I say, squeezing her neck gently. “It is not okay to give up before we’ve even started.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not giving up. I just…I don’t want anything to happen to you and I’m worried I won’t be able to protect you.”

“So you do think I’m going to die.”

She tsks, grimacing. “We’re fighting a goddess at full power.”

“Well, after the several surprises we have for her, I’m sure she won’t be full power,” I say, smiling to abate her fear.

“How do you do it?” she asks, melting into my touch.

“There’s no other choice before us. I can be grim about it and brood like Kazimir, or I can smile at death, even when I’m scared.”

She leans in and our lips meet. We chase warmth between breaths, holding one another tightly as we pour all the words we couldn’t say into this one moment.

“It’s time,” Alyse says to the battlefield, her voice booming like a roll of thunder.

The blue dragon zips through the clouds, his wings pinned to his sides as he dives. They snap out, a crack hitting the world from their power. He flaps twice to pull out of the descent and sails overhead, followed closely by Kazimir and Alyse, bound together.

“Let’s go,” Emillia says, tugging on my hands.

I double-check the flask, ensuring everything is right.

It is.

It’s ready.

We’re ready.

This will work.

We jog back to the line of safety and jump over the runes Liliana has drawn in the rubble.

When we all cross the threshold, she raises the stone, creating a thick barrier to protect the front lines.

Zane carves Eng runes along the reconstructed walls, adding an additional layer of security to our cover.

I turn my gaze back to the center, to Ashai. The crystals throb with Reina’s power, begging to be unleashed. I can feel the ipsain threatening to detonate, even in this cold. I pull its temperature down another measure as we await the word from on high.

My hands tremble as I clutch the detonators. Left for the ipsain, right for the flask. I should’ve given them to Alyse…

The air parts, snowflakes and mist condensing into a thick dome around the goddess.

“Now!”

I press the trigger on the flask detonator.

The ice is spattered with pale-green acid from the inside and evaporates instantly.

The ground smokes, sending tendrils of putridity curling around the statue’s legs.

The goddess’s chest cracks and black mist oozes from the point like blood from a wound.

The arms snap, moving in jerky, unnatural ways.

Her neck twists with a deep crackle, and her eyes lock on me .

Black glass explodes from her body, sending shrapnel sailing toward the wall protecting us. I duck behind the window made in the stone. My heart hammers as my left hand clutches the detonator for the ipsain bombs.

“Hold,” Alyse projects. “She’s not here yet.”

An unholy wail pierces the air and shakes the ground. The Spiders waiting in the emptied moat clutch each other’s hands, whisper prayers, and puke their guts out. I hold onto the detonator for my life, thumb poised over the trigger as I look through the window once more.

A burst of shadow darkens the world from under her feet. It shoots into the sky and turns the clouds deep blue. The wind curls around them into a storm that spits back to the ground in a whipping tornado. It encases the goddess, obscuring her from view.

The figures around her move, their black-encased bodies animating without shedding their obelisk skin. They move toward the ipsain crystals, groping at them with their rigid arms.

They’re trying to remove them.

Sweat gathers on my brow under my goggles. Every pull of frigid air into my lungs feels like tiny knives spearing my thundering heart. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help.

The blue dragon flies past the storm, and the air thickens with electricity.

Ions tickle the exposed skin on my face.

The lightning strikes the tornado, whipping through the mist and hitting each of the animated statues.

Their casings shatter and their bodies grow, monsters expanding into the world where men once stood.

The tornado snaps with blue lightning again and again, a chain reaction of magic set off within it. Another ethereal scream rocks me to the core as the very fabric of the air seems to tear .

A gaping void ripples into view, but it’s not empty at all. I can’t comprehend what my eyes are telling me. It is everything, and nothing at all, an empty well, a swollen ocean. Maybe this is infinity.

A whisper of gold slides behind my eyes like a knife, and my thumb moves of its own accord. The world pauses with a flash of brilliance. Silence falls in my blindness. I’m pulled away from the wall and tucked into someone’s chest. It smells of the forest, and black powder. Like my huntress.

A sonic boom slams into us, my ears aching from the force of it. Heat upon heat swells, burning away the snow beneath our feet. Emillia holds me harder. The wall cracks and fire licks through the runes. The Spiders in the trench maintain their shields, but only just.

Time restarts. The wave of flames gutters and dies, but not before leaving us singed and smoking. Emillia releases me, and I turn to the blackened window.

A puddle of black pools at the bottom of the crater. Above it hangs the rip in the world, slowly pouring more mist into our realm. It trickles now, until the last drop falls into the pool. The liquid shivers, fingertips of it reaching up into the world on the final ripple.

I wait for any word from Alyse, for anything else to move, to know my fate…

All of Gaien is holding its breath.

The blue dragon streaks through the sky, a ball of lightning coiled in his throat. He opens his mouth in a roar, unleashing a powerful attack on the puddle of black ooze.

The lightning explodes before impact, forking legs shooting off into the land around it. The pit sizzles and glows red-hot.

The darkness moves.

The portal to the infinite abyss shimmers.

“We didn’t kill her,” Alyse whispers .

My heart plummets through my gut.

“We can still win. There is a chance.”

A monster of pale skin pulled too tight over twisted bones appears at the edge of our realm. Its bladed arms cut the air as it falls into the black pool. The surface shivers again—pleased with the offering.

“An army is coming. It’s her captives…fuck.”

The gut-clenching realization has everyone behind the wall clenching their fists and cursing. It’s not just random hellbeasts. It’s our people.

The dragon makes a second pass, aiming for the portal. The arc of lightning slams against the nothingness and emerges through the other side, smashing into the ground. Stones fly and another dark soldier drops into the pool.

Emillia cocks the hammer on her blunderbuss. “I guess it’s time for Plan B.”

I’d hoped that our ipsain crystals would work, but in my heart I think I knew it wouldn’t. I think we all knew it wouldn’t. Reina’s light could battle back the darkness, but defeat it? How could Zephrom have led us so astray? Did she want this?

I catch Zane’s gaze. He bows his head gravely, affection clear in his eyes. Then his voice fills my mind.

“It’s been a pleasure working beside you. All of you. Now we fight for our lives, our children’s futures, and the very soul of our home.”

Another creature appears at the portal’s edge, and Emillia’s blunderbuss barks. The shot smashes into the monster, splitting open its chest. The creature tumbles into the pool, and it grows, the liquid lapping farther up the edges.

“Ashai will spill upon this world and destroy it. We are the only thing standing in her way. I’m ready to die fighting.”

Calls of “Spider Lord” and “My king” echo through the ranks of the gathered soldiers.

Emillia reloads her weapon. I grab a grenade from my belt and cook it before tossing it into the pit. The detonation shines through the goop, and it writhes like a worm. A beast crawls from the pit, armored in her magic and twice the size as when it dropped from hell.

The portal grows and four more creatures fall. An endless stream appears. Body after body dropping from the opening into the pit.

Bolts of magic shoot through the portal, some of them hitting monsters on their way down. Knives lodge into sinewy guts and disappear into the black pit of Ashai’s power. Spiders rush forward, ready to meet the oncoming horde with all the weapons at their disposal.

It’s come to this, then. I pull off my coat, stripping out of the oppressive material. My expanded satchel clinks open, and I reach inside, grabbing the thing I’ve feared most for days.

The silver bullets glow with an otherworldly blue behind the glass. I hold the vials out to Emillia. Three in total, five shots each. She takes them, her eyes wide with curiosity.

“They’re alchemically engineered with Reina’s magic. I’m not sure if they’ll fire correctly, or blow up your gun, but I made them for you.”

Her eyes meet mine and they reflect all the same things I feel.

“I love you,” she says, her bottom lip trembling.

Finally…

I smirk. “I know.”