“I could stall the Ruin,” she said quickly. “Distract it. Just long enough for everyone to get inside the tunnels. I don’t think it could follow us underground. It’s never attacked the ice glass caves in the north.”
Reyna watched Lorcan’s jaw ripple where he ground his teeth in distinct disagreement with everything she had just said. “You’re doing it again. Being reckless.”
“You’re right. I am. And I’m going tokeepdoing it.”
Reyna turned to Segonax. “Get all your captains together, and tell them to get all their warriors underground as quickly as possible. Tell them that if they see the Ruin, run. Now is not the time for heroics. The Ruin doesn’t care about bravery. Understood?”
She thought the commander might argue with her. She was an ice fae, after all, and practically a prisoner. Just because she wasn’t rotting in a cell didn’t mean that she was a member of their court. But Segonax nodded and vanished through the tent’s flap.
She glanced to her left. “Lorcan, you—”
“I’m not leaving your damn side, and don’t even think about telling me to do something else.”
Heat filled her cheeks. “All right.” She turned to Tarrah. “I think it would be best if you went with Nollaig. She’ll keep you safe.”
Tarrah stared ahead, unseeing. “Why did I not see this?”
“Because Unseelie is the god of armpits,” Nollaig growled. “Come on, Tarrah. Let’s get you underground where it’s safe.”
Tarrah whirled away from Nollaig and disappeared through the tent’s flap. Reyna frowned after her. She understood why she was so upset. She was quickly learning that the god she had dedicated her life to was not exactly what she thought he was. Reyna wished she could help her, but the Ruin would not wait.
“Nollaig,” Reyna said as she strode toward the flap.
“Don’t worry. I’ll look after her.”
They all pressed out into the night where the camp was descending into total chaos. Strong and steady warriors with brave hearts and honorable souls were screaming in fear as they rushed from an unseen monster. Some had already been hit by the Ruin. Their arms were smoking from the black specks that had touched them, their skin melting off and dusting onto the ground.
Overhead, the once-still sky now crackled and churned with bulbous clouds thick with grey. Lightning ripped through the camp, and Reyna fisted her hands.
“The Ruin,” she whispered toward it.
When she had fought the Ruin amidst the snowstorm in Feurach Fortress, she had not known or understood what she was doing. She had been running on adrenaline and pure desperation, her heart crying out in fear for her sister. She had none of that desperation now. While she did not want thousands of fae to suffer and die needlessly, there was no love lost between Reyna and the Shadow Court.
In fact, it was a shame High King Bolg himself wasn’t out here in the chaos.
“Reyna, what are you doing?” Lorcan asked as they passed another group of whimpering fae rushing toward the tunnels. His eyes kept flicking up to the churning sky. So far, no flecks of ash had rained down on them yet, but it was only a matter of time before the Ruin turned its wrath on her.
Shewas why it had come here, after all.
“You should go into the caves with everyone else,” Reyna said, turning to where she heard the loudest screams. Wind whipped around her, tossing her long hair into a tornado around her throat.
“I would rather sacrifice myself to the Unseelie god himself than to leave you out here to face the Ruin alone,” he said, his voice rough.
Reyna stopped suddenly, whirling to face him. Her heart clenched at the look of sheer desperation on his face. It matched the thudding of her own heart. “And I’d rather die than see you turned into a pile of ash!”
He just continued to glower at her as the harsh wind snatched at his hair.
“Look.” She pointed toward the left, pleading at him with her eyes. “I’ve brought you to the other entrance to the caves.” She tipped back her head to gaze up at the electric sky. “I don’t know where the Ruin’s gone, but it’s coming back. I think it’s searching for me. You shouldn’t be here when it finds me.”
“Too damn bad!” he shouted into the wind that now whipped around their bodies in a fury.
Her heart cracked in two as she stared into his anguished eyes. If he stayed out here, he would die, same as everyone else. Same as her mother. Same as hundreds and hundreds of ice fae. Same as all those warriors trapped inside of Feurach Fortress when it had come tumbling down beneath the weight of the burning ash.
“Lorcan.” She reached out and cupped his face. “It willdestroyyou. Please. Go inside the tunnels.”
Lightning crackled overhead, and the bulbous clouds split open. Darkness swirled down in a blizzard of death, large black flakes that sizzled and popped. The clouds stretched out for miles. There was no escaping it.
The Ruin had found her.
