Something nudged against the toe of his boot. An empty glass. Dominic picked it up, the reek of alcohol hitting him like a physical blow. He hurled the bottle across the room, straightinto the door that led to his parents’ room, though his father never bothered to sleep there. The glass shattered, sprinkling down on the wooden floorboards. Knowing it would break and the shattering of glass would fill the silent space didn’t stop him from wincing.
What he wasn’t expecting was for the door against which it shattered to fly open, banging against the adjacent wall. A strong figure stood in the frame. A snarl jarred this decrepit place out of its silence. Drawing his sword, Dominic took a hesitant step forward—but stopped when he heard weeping behind a closed door. A door that led to the room he and his sister had shared.
“About time you came back, boy.”
Dominic stopped, his entire body going taut at the sound of that voice. Despite the years of training, of holding up under torture, of carving out his own heart, his hand, clamped around his sword, trembled uncontrollably. He turned to face the man in the doorway.
There was a thunderouscrack,and Dominic fell to the floor, screaming in anguish. Not only at the familiar sting of the whip shredding his skin to ribbons, but whatever agonizing hold the Ruins clamped onto his mind.
Pain, anguish, fear. Emotions Dominic hadn’t felt in years consumed him entirely.
He wanted to shout her name but he didn’t know if it even came out as a whisper.Adara, he called out as a last resort, hoping somehow she would hear as the agony pitched him into darkness.
Chapter 36
Adarajoltedawakeatthe sharp, horrendous scream that echoed across the Ruins. It shook the scraggly, dead trees, sending crows flying from their barren branches. Her thoughts instantly went to Dominic. Was it his cries of pain that lanced through her ears? Was it even real?
She couldn’t dwell on the thought for long. A growl rippled from behind her, low and animalistic and utterly terrifying. Adara had only one thought then.Whatever is behind me is about to devour me alive.
Scrambling to her feet, she tripped and landed hard on the ground. She spit sand from her mouth, muttering curses in ancient Blemythian at Dominic for tying her to a gods damn tree in the deadliest place on the continent. Those damned vines were still twisted around her ankles, but luckily, right before she’d passed out, she had been able to slip her hands through the bonds that shackled her wrists. Her blood, still flowing from her sliced wrists, told her that not much time had passed.
A single thought from her and the vines burned to ash. Dominic must have been out of range for his magic to stifle hers. He, at least, had not stripped her of her weapons. Her sword was still sheathed at her hip, along with a variety of other knives. She drew Infinova. Its metal sang as she pulled it free of its scabbard. In her other hand, she palmed the dagger from her vambrace, prepared to attack.
The wind stilled. A reeking stench stuffed itself up her nostrils. Adara gagged at the rancid air. She breathed in deeper, despite the disgusting smell, tracking the scent. It appeared to be coming from her left, and close. She whirled in time to see a flash of shadow against the gray backdrop of land, shaded beneath dark clouds.
A dungeon flashed in her mind. Lurking shadows. Putrid air. Blood spilled.
She braced herself, blocked out the images of her imprisonment, and hurled the dagger at the creature. Her lips curled in annoyance at the sound of sand showering instead of the squelch of her knife slicing through flesh and bone. Another knife from the sheaths at her ribs was in her hand in an instant, poised to strike this monster that prowled like fluid night, taunting her.
Its horrendous scent swept through again, but its direction was undetectable. The darkness swirled around her, too fast for her to target. Keeping an eye on it, Adara whirled and turned,trying to aim her weapons at it. But the bloody thing was too fast. Her head spun from the way it circled her as she followed, trying not to turn her back on it.
A faltered, dizzied step was all the vulnerability it took for the monster to surge. The thing lunged straight for her weapons—no, not her weapons. Her hands, her wrists, coated in blood, intrigued by how she would taste. It wanted to suck the life out of her, drain her until she was nothing but a flattened, withered husk of a body like the corpses scattered throughout the Ruins.
Adara hurled her knife at the dark figure leaping for her, then thrust her sword into it. She felt the resistance inside it, the muscle and bone she shoved her blade through, the spray of blood. Good. This was not a figment of her imagination. Not some nightmare made of wind and darkness, but a monster of flesh and bone. Something that could be killed. Her power surged from her hands, along her sword. Blue flames erupted inside the creature’s chest. Its shriek pierced her ears, leaving them ringing. The creature pulled back, no longer a mass of moving shadow, but a spindly, dark, withered thing. It prowled on six limbs. Sharp triangular ears stood alert on its shriveled head. Its nostrils, nothing more than two holes against its flat face, flared as it scented her. It retreated a few steps and, with haggard limbs, batted away at the flames burning its flesh. It recovered quickly. Her fire could harm it, but not kill it.
She took a step back, blasting a stream of fire toward it. The thing dodged, leaping out of the way to blend into the night, but not before Adara could glimpse the mass of shining teeth, covered in red, that made up most of its face. All fangs and mouth, ready to devour anything and everything it touched. But no eyes, she noted. It hunted by sound and scent. Drawn toward Adara and Dominic from their bickering, waiting until she was alone and unconscious. It delighted in the smell of her blood.
Adara shifted, glancing around for the creature that prowled in the dark. Casting out a hand, she surrounded herself with a ring of flames, a wall of light to keep the monster at bay. Something moved in front of her, and the fire leaped at whatever kindling it had been offered. The thing shrieked again, pulling away from the flames. It had run blindly into her magic.
On the other side of the wall of flames, the creature prowled back and forth, growling and snarling, bearing its massive, fanged head at her. Bits of flesh and blood were stuck between its teeth. It halted in front of her. The claws of its two forelimbs clacked together. Was it sharpening them? Preparing to rip her to bloody shreds? Adara could only watch from her protective barrier of fire. The creature repeated the action again, prowling back and forth, claws clicking—
Pain exploded through her shoulder. Sharp, agonizing, deep. Infinova fell from her hand, and Adara collapsed to the ground under the weight thrown atop her back. Biting down on her scream to keep whatever else from finding her, she rolled, facing whatever had attacked her from behind.
Another creature snapped its fangs at her, inches from sinking its teeth into her face. The reek of rotten flesh filled her nostrils. Adara gritted her teeth, shoving against its leathery skin. She bit back a cry of agony that rippled through her shredded skin where her shoulder met the base of her neck.
The other creature must have been signaling for more of its pack. This one had leaped straight through the ring of fire to attack. The smell of its burning flesh permeated the air. The first monster was merely a distraction.
Its weight bore down on her, crushing her. Its six limbs trapped her, caging her beneath it on either side. Adara pushed with all her strength against its rotten chest, but to no avail. She willed her nails to transform, talons as long as daggers taking their place, piercing into its thin layer of skin. It let out a lowgrowl as she slashed her way through flesh and bone until she wrapped her talons around its vertebrae.
Snap.A twist of her wrist was all it took to sever its spine.
The creature wailed, but it did not fall dead. Wounded and weakened, Adara was able to throw it off her, into her awaiting flames. The fire licked at the creature, eliciting shrieks from it until it rolled in the sand, dousing the flames. It rose, bent and broken, once more.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the fiery wall. Many more had heard the first creature’s signal and came for her. Adara only picked up her sword and dagger, talons still out, and bared her teeth, now elongated into sharp fangs. To defeat the monsters, she had become one.
Letting go of the hold on her ring of fire, Adara unleashed a wave of flames around her, burning into the creatures that surrounded her. Their cries of pain were deafening. The fire vanished, throwing her into an oblivion of darkness for mere moments before her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Realizing the fire had no lasting effect on the beasts, she leaped with teeth and claws, shredding them as they intended to do to her.
A slash of her dagger. A swipe of her talons. A thrust of Infinova. One of the creatures neared, and Adara sank her fangs into its arm that reached for her throat, tearing away a piece of it. Black blood sprayed against her face. She spat out its flesh, the rotten taste sending a wave of nausea through her.
