Where are you?she asked.
No answer.
If I let you go, will you attack the wood king?
Silence.
She let out an irritated huff. All this time, it had barked its twisted words at her fragile mind. Now that she actually wanted to hear from it, it spoke nothing. But even if it did, could she believe it? Would it not just say whatever it thought Reyna wanted to hear so that she might finally let it out of her body?
But the Ruin had also never lied…it only spoke the truth, as far as it could tell. It had been wrong about a lot of things, but only because that was what it believed.
Can’t you at least say something?
The Ruin sighed.You shouldn’t let me out while you’re inside this cage.
Her heart thumped.Why not?
The iron will trap me in here. I won’t be able to get out unless someone opens the door. And I doubt any of the wood fae will do that once they see what I am.
Reyna nodded.So, you do have a weakness.
The same weakness as you. I am built of fae magic, after all.
If only she’d known that before, she could have prevented all of this from happening. She would have used iron against the storm ages ago.Why are you telling me this? Isn’t that what you want? Being trapped in here with me?
The Ruin was silent for a good long while, and the only sound in the hall was the echo of the wood king’s fist against Segonax’s face. Bones crunched. Lorcan roared.
Your words have confused me,it admitted.You were right. I’ve lived inside your body for weeks. I’ve heard what’s in your mind. You have dark thoughts, but you are not the twisted monster of the Dagda’s visions.
Hope pulsed in Reyna’s veins. She sucked in a sharp breath, terrified to speak a word for fear of changing the Ruin’s mind. But she needed to hear more.So, you’ve realized I’m not the Namhaid, after all.
The Ruin’s attention seemed toshift. Instinctively, Reyna lifted her head toward Ulaid Molt. He towered over a broken Segonax, who whimpered on the ground. It made Reyna’s heart break. She itched to flatten herself into an impossible pancake and squeeze through the bars so that she might stop the wood king from causing him any further pain.
Molt’s eyes had transformed. They gleamed crimson, as if the blood he’d swallowed had spun through his body, filling every single part of him. Spittle dripped down his long, sharp chin. His body trembled with quiet rage.
Don’t you see,Reyna thought to the storm inside of her.It’s not me. It’s him.
The Ruin’s whispers filled her mind.He is not the Namhaid, but he is something almost as terrible.
Her hope shattered. Even after everything, the Ruin still clung to his beliefs with ragged fingernails.You have such blinders on. Look at him. He—
Does not fit the visions,the Ruin argued.There is more to the visions than I’ve shown you, and this male cannot be the one.
Reyna slumped to the floor, hugging her knees tight to her chest. Molt had begun to walk around Segonax in slow circles, like a tiger waiting to pounce. Her chest deflated. For a moment, she thought she’d gotten through to the Ruin. The magic finally saw beyond its narrow vision. She’d hoped it would turn its sights on the wood king, using its terrible power to finally defeat the true enemy of the world.
But she’d been wrong. It was no use. The Ruin had spent far too long in its own mind, believing in a false truth. It was hard for anyone to take off their blinders, no matter how hard reality stared them in the face. Reyna had not met many fae who could get past their own prejudices. And the Ruin wasn’t even fae. It was just power, magic, a destructive force of nature.
She should have known she could never convince it. And now it was trapped inside this cage with her until the very end. How could she use it against the king, if she couldn’t even get it out of here?
The answer was, she couldn’t. There was no way out of this.
Not unless she could get out of this cage before Ulaid Molt killed them all.
44
Lorcan
Lorcan’s chest heaved as he glared through the iron bars at the wood king. Ulaid Molt stood over Segonax, whose broken body split Lorcan’s heart into a thousand battered pieces. Seg had never been anything but strong and steady, a comforting presence in Lorcan’s rocky life. He’d never imagined him anything other than a permanent fixture of the Shadow Court, like an immovable rock. Unbreakable.
