Cyn came up beside Ruby, ready to step in front of her if necessary.Good girl, Ruby.Stay calm.
But emotion leaked into her voice when she said, “You used your connections to have us all killed.We were your friends.You used to babysit me.”
“My connections.”Darren’s smile seemed almost wistful before it disappeared.“Your father should have thought of that before he ran off with years’ of research.Research to which I contributed.He was clearly planning to profit?—”
“That’s the story you told everyone else,” Ruby cut in.“I know the truth.”
“You’re right.That was the for-public-consumption version.The truth was your father had finally figured out how to accomplish his life-long goal, and he wasn’t about to heed Brom’s warning to destroy it.He took everything and went on the run.I couldn’t let him endanger people by continuing his project.”
Cyn’s eyes narrowed.“That’s what you told your connection at the Guard, that Justin was dangerous.”
Darren merely said, “He couldn’t be allowed to harm others.”
“Why didn’t you simply have him arrested?Why kill all of us?”Ruby asked.
“Not knowing how much your mother knew, or how much you had overheard, made it necessary to eliminate everyone.It was nothing personal.”
“And you couldn’t leave witnesses who would contradict the accident story,” Cyn added.
“Nothing personal?”Ruby turned to Magda.“You wereour friends.I was your surrogate daughter.”
Magda’s shoulders stiffened.“Friends?No, we socialized because Darren wanted to feel that he and Justin were a team, equally responsible for the project’s progress.Spending time with your family was excruciating.Justin spoiled your mother rotten.If Leah so much as whispered some wish, he made it happen.Even getting her pregnant the first month they tried.And don’t think that she didn’t rub it in my face that her husband got all the glory and money from SUNLAB’s financial backer.And yes, you were a substitute for the daughter I couldn’t have, but after a while it became too painful to spend time with you.I didn’t want you dead, but it was not my decision to make.”Her hard eyes flicked to Cyn.“You know that you’re allied with the man who killed your parents, don’t you?”
Ruby flinched.“He’s better than the person who ordered their deaths.”
Cyn was glad Ruby hadn’t found out like this.It was too late for Magda to drive a wedge between them.He had already done so.
Ruby faced Darren.“What you’re doing is threatening the safety of every Crescent, including children.”
“And you base this on Brom’s warning?Do you really believe that crazy old man?”
Cyn crossed his arms over his chest.“Obviously you do.You set a parasite demon on him to keep him quiet.”The pieces began to fit together.“You were expecting Brom to return when you started fracturing theDeus Visagain, probably put a scry orb on his house.It followed Brom when he went to Moncrief and told him about his prophecy and Ruby’s part in it.That’s why you’re so determined to kill her.”
Ruby turned to Cyn, her eyes wide.Then she turned back to Darren.“You had Mon killed because he knew too much.”
Darren’s face was rigid.“And you made it easy by showing up.If only you’d died easily.”
That’s when Ruby’s control finally snapped.She Catalyzed, but Magda turned Dragon faster, pouncing before Ruby could tear at Darren’s throat.Cyn tossed the device beneath the table and let his Dragon loose.He meant to block Magda, but Darren hit him with a ball of energy that washed over him like an electrical shock.
Ruby took the hit from the Citrine Dragon, whose mouth had closed over Ruby’s neck.They both hit the floor.
Darren sent another orb at Cyn that threw him against a cabinet.He pushed through the pain, shaking from the effort.The waves obliterated his view of Ruby, as if he were underwater.All he could see were blurry figures.
“Stinger, Ruby,” he managed to say.He hoped she remembered his lesson on what powers the different Dragons possessed.
Magda’s tail lifted up to lance Ruby, who dodged out of the way.Ruby lunged, and Magda howled in pain, blood oozing from beneath some of her scales.
Still reeling from the two orbs, Cyn didn’t have the wherewithal to move out of the way as a different orb came his way.It enveloped him, like one of those bubbles from a kid’s plastic bottle.It didn’t break when he tried to puncture it.He jerked his talons back from the sticky shell.
He inhaled but found he couldn’t draw enough Breath to generate his smoke.Darren approached him, hands out as he kept the bubble going.“And you have been a real pain in our ass, too.Ruby would have been taken care of long ago if it weren’t for you.What is it about this girl that weakens you, powerful and ruthless Vega?Women aren’t worth that kind of sacrifice.All they do is nag and demand and harass, and nothing you ever do is good enough.But you’re going to die for one of the insatiable bitches.”
Magda lifted her head at words spoken with a bitterness as powerful as his damned orb.Ruby took advantage of her surprise, scraping her talons across her opponent’s vulnerable eyes.Magda screamed, trying to brush away the blood that dripped into her eyes.
Fueled by anger, Cyn drew enough strength to inhale and shoot out a stream of black smoke.It penetrated the bubble’s shell and looped around Darren’s neck.The bubble broke as Darren’s concentration did.He then created some kind of magick to disintegrate the rope of smoke.It loosened as Cyn lunged at him.Darren lurched to the side, and Cyn’s fangs ended up only grazing Darren’s side.Still, blood gushed through the tear in his shirt.Darren put his hand there and lifted red-smeared fingers, shock on his face.Maybe it was deeper than Cyn thought.
The bastard threw another orb, knocking Cyn against the wall.Magda’s tail whipped back and forth as she blindly aimed for Ruby.Ruby blew out a stream of fire that singed the scales down Magda’s side.She screamed and lurched.Her tail hit Ruby, jolting her with poison.
Cyn tried to get to her as she fell with a gasp, but Darren surrounded him with another bubble.Wait.He’d been caught in one of these before.He pulled from the old memory and got the bubble rolling toward Darren.The bubble collided with him, sucking Darren in, too.Cyn pinned Darren down, then turned to Ruby.
