Page 122 of Fated In Ruin
“If we all make it back, I’ll try, Evie,” Blake rumbled. “I can’t promise you I’ll be his best fucking friend, but for your sake…I will try to accept him.”
* * *
My heart poundedagainst my ribs when Blake lifted Silas's globe above his head, its surface glowing like a newly minted star over our closely knit group, gathered on the gravel drive. The magic around us turned thick, pressing against my skin like static electricity before a storm.
“Are you certain you can track him?” Riordan asked me for the third time, his voice every bit as tight as his arms were banded around me.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the thread that connected me to Malachi—that unbreakable blood bond stretching across the ocean to him—the tether pulsed faintly, like a distant heartbeat. “Yes,” I said, opening my eyes. “He's still near the castle, but he’s moving... deeper into somewhere dark.” I didn't like how the bond seemed to be growing fainter by the minute.
Blake’s dark gaze slid to mine. “If that prick gets himself killed before we get there, I'll personally find a way to resurrect him just so I can kill him again.”
“Your concern is touching,” Eldric remarked dryly, but I could see his agitation as he wrapped his rust colored cloak tighter around him. Eldric was a scholar, not a warrior, and his gaze kept darting to the doorway of the castle as I hid my smile, knowing who he was looking for.
The poor male was head over heels in love with my sister, and he didn’t know what he’d gotten himself into. But Angel deserved to be happy, and I wasn’t above playing Cupid, if I thought Eldric would do just that.
Fiona, on the other hand, looked battle ready in head-to-toe leathers, her dark red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail like mine. From the bumps and bulges beneath her coat, I’d say she was as heavily armed, too.
Nash finished his guard’s final instructions. “Remember, only engage his thralls, or any threats guarding the perimeter. Our objective is to clear a path for Team A to gain access while Fiona drops the wards. Ravok is not an enemy to be confronted alone,” he told them, then added, quietly, so only Riordan and I could hear, “Even for one as powerful as Malachi.”
“He thinks he's protecting me—protecting all of us—by going alone,” I said bitterly. “The noble idiot.”
Nash’s soldiers lined up behind him. “The tactical team is ready. We’ll get Fiona into position to eval and breach any magical barriers.”
Fiona looked unruffled as she said, “The castle's old enough to be guarded by primitive magic, which can be stubborn. But at the same time, it’s simpler to bypass. I will create an opening, long enough for you to pass through, and if I’m careful, Ravok won’t even know you’re there.”
“Ready?” Rohr whispered, crushing me tighter against him. “Nash tested the globe, after Fiona explored its limits. That thing can get us there in one jump, if we use the rifts, but you’ll need to keep your eyes closed and remember to keep breathing.”
“Everybody stick together and don’t panic. The rifts will get us there faster, but they’re cold as fuck,” Nash warned, buttoning his coat all the way to his chin.
“What are these rifts?” I asked Riordan quietly. “Are they dangerous?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking. They’re pockets of magic, suspended in space. We can dematerialize to one, jump to the next, then the next, and make it to France in minutes. By using the globe, none of us are expending precious energy transporting ourselves there, which would take hours.”
“So they’re like shortcuts?”
“The way we’re using them, yes.” He tucked me under his chin, while Blake watched approvingly. “Now wrap your arms around me, close your eyes and don’t let go.”
I closed my eyes and reached for that thread connecting me to Malachi. The connection was like trying to grasp smoke, but I refused to let him slip away. I pictured his face—not the cold mask he presented to the world, but the rare, unguarded expressions I’d touched and tasted, the ones only I knew about. The slight curve of his lip when something genuinely amused him. The intensity in his eyes when he looked at me as if memorizing every detail.
“Now,” Blake whispered and the entire world dissolved.
54
MALACHI
The scent of pine and loam filled my nostrils as night fell over the Alps, but I needed no light to dematerialize up to the crumbling castle—the Castle of Eternal Shadows, as Lord Aurelius called this place.
He’d always been such an over dramatic bastard.
I pulled my coat tighter, the mist carrying that mountain chill, an unfamiliar, unwelcome sensation twisting in my chest.Doubt.
Thishadto work. Ihadto stop him. Killing Ravok—and Romulus—and whoever the fuck else they’d brought here was the only way to ensure Evangeline’s safety.
I pressed myself against the cold stone wall, becoming one with the shadows as a pair of thralls shambled past. Their clouded eyes stared vacantly ahead, jaws slack, skin mottled with the gray-green of advanced decay. The stench—a peculiar mix of putrification and foul chemicals I couldn’t identify—threatened to overwhelm my senses.
They still wore the uniform of Tyrell House, so these were two of Bosch’s guards, what little was left of them. I had to wonder why Rom bothered carting them all the way across the ocean, but maybe he’d grown attached to them.
One thought had my magic gathering, pushing me through the wards and onto what remained of the castle’s Keep, my glamour wrapped around me like a second skin.
