Chapter 4 Crashing In
~ DONAVYN ~
The moment Kgosi told me the girls were in trouble, my heart leaped into my throat.
Those endless minutes of racing for his harness, flying to the clearing, sprinting through the city…
I kept reaching for her, clawing down the bond, but her mind was closed like a steel trap.
Akhane couldn’t even reach her. She’d fled in terror and probably didn’t even know she’d shut herself off.
But Kgosi assured me, Akhane could still sense her, awake and fearful.
Ruin? Ruin was here?
Only Kgosi’s reassurance, and his link with Akhane kept me sane as I ran for the city.
When I finally made it to the Stonebridge Inn, Horace, the innkeeper, hadn’t seen Bren, but the moment Horace discreetly mentioned our mutual friend waiting for me upstairs, I knew.
I tore up the stairs on silent feet, praying he hadn’t gotten Bren out of there yet, and opened the door to my worst nightmare come to life.
Bren on her back on the bed, pinned by a smiling Ruin.
I’d barely registered her knife, or the fact that his hands were up, only heard his self-satisfied purr, “…Even if you were pinned, I’d still outrank you. So… you tell me: How the fuck did you find me out here?”
I saw red.
“She found you because she was doing her job.”
Bren gasped as I threw myself across the bed, tackling Ruin and taking him straight into the wall behind him in a crash that made me wince because it would bring other patrons running if they weren’t too drunk to care.
But I lost my advantage when we landed on the floor, the wall behind me and the bed on my other side, there was no room to move, to use my greater weight. As I tussled and fought for a grip, Ruin kicked a leg up behind me and sent me over his shoulder.
I cursed as I was forced to let him go and roll, somersaulting back to my feet and whirling straight into a new attack, before Ruin had time to think.
But Ruin was a skilled fighter, and he’d been in the field for months, training daily.
Without hesitation, he kicked—powerful enough to break a femur if I hadn’t turned quickly to take the force on the ass, though the impact shuddered up my spine.
As his body recoiled in the kick, I followed him into the movement, punching straight for his chest while his center of gravity was still low.
But the fucker was quick. Very quick.
Slightly off balance, he used his stance to his advantage, catching my arm and yanking me forward so my momentum pulled me off my feet.
Whipping his arm around mine like a snake, he locked his hand at my shoulder which kept my arm extended and virtually useless—any movement I made would shift his bodyweight and dislocate my shoulder.
Thought and strategy flickered in my head, little more than instinct.
His balance was off.
The foot of the bed was behind him.
Bren on its other side in a defensive stance, looking for an opening.
Can’t let her get tangled in this.
With every ounce of power I possessed, I used his grip on my arm to keep him hovering, halfway to the floor, and brought my knee up to his chest, trying to crack a rib, then again, going for his groin, but he twisted at the last second so I caught his belly, winding him.
His eyes went wide as he staggered, but then narrowed and he used his leverage on my arm to pull me down with him, hooking my ankle and sending me over his head.
A jolt of pain sang through my shoulder, but I rolled into it, and in desperation, scissor-kicked as we tumbled to the floor, using Ruin’s grip on my arm to pull his upper-body tight against me, while I hooked one heel over his thigh, and threw the other leg over his neck.
His eyes widened as I locked him in, his arm extended up my torso, unable to get leverage to push himself up because I’d locked one leg down, and he couldn’t raise his head, because my other knee squeezed in a vice on his neck.
I had him.
I fucking had him.
Grim pleasure burst in my chest as I watched his face turn red and I tightened my knee over his throat.
“Donavyn… Donavyn—don’t!” Bren breathed.
I barely heard her.
“You are a rapist, and a traitor,” I snarled.
Ruin’s eyes went wide and a strangled protest rose in his throat. His one free hand clawed at my knee, but I didn’t give two shits if he laid my leg open to the bone, I was not letting him go.
“I know precisely what you are, you little shit, and I’m going to—”
“Not… what you—” Ruin spluttered.
“Donavyn, you promised!”
“Do you hear that, cock-nugget? She’s begging for your life, because she cares more about my honor, than she does about how you tried to destroy her. But guess what? I don’t.”
“Donavyn!”
“I’m going to give you one chance, you putrid little fuck. I’m going to give you just enough air to beg for your life so you can spend it in the dungeon, groveling for her forgiveness—and unless you make it very clear that’s your singular life’s goal, I will snap your neck.”
I tightened my knee further and gave him a jerk, let him feel how close I was to stopping his air completely. He knew, with the right angle, I could snap his neck from this position, and his eyes went round as a red spider of veins burst in one of his eyes.
“You have a count of five,” I snarled through my teeth, then loosened my knee just an inch.
Ruin sucked in a lungful of air in a desperate wheeze, then croaked, “You can’t kill me! I know who the mole is!”
I froze. Bren gasped.
Ruin spluttered, trying to clear his throat, his face red, veins popping.
“What mole?” I seethed, but my heart had dropped to my toes. Because there was no way he’d known—
“The one you must b-be hunting,” he rasped, struggling now, trying to get me to release his arm. I didn’t. But I did give him a little more air. “That’s the only… only explanation… why they’d have you out… out of Vosgaarde. Right?”
I was stunned speechless. My body hummed with the need for revenge, for retribution, for safety for Bren.
“Donavyn,” Bren whispered. “We need—”
“Your orders had nothing to do with a mole,” I snarled through my teeth.
Ruin tried to nod, but he couldn’t move without restricting air. His eyes bulged for a moment and I felt him swallow against the back of my thigh.
He must be the mole, my vengeance insisted. I hadn’t even spoken to the king about that suspicion before he left.
But the ugly side of me couldn’t deny that the timing was all off. Ruin had been in the castle when the first suspicious reports were received, in an entirely different kingdom. And even after he left, they came through sources he didn’t know, and from locations he hadn’t been.
“I learned… in Draeventhall…” he said hoarsely, eyes blazing, but he’d stopped struggling against me. “That’s why you’re here. That’s why I’m here. We’re on the same hunt.”
In the silence that followed that moment, I could hear my own heartbeat thudding in my head.
Kill-him. Kill-him. Kill-him.
And in counterpoint, my conviction and my honor.
Be-wise. Be-wise. Be-wise.
I muttered a curse. Ruin’s eyes widened, but I ignored him. “Bren,” I graveled, “Pull the chair into the middle of the room. Get the hair tie leathers I left in the drawer, and two of my belts.”
She hurried to do as I’d instructed without question. Ruin’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”
I let my lip curl back from my teeth, let him see the utter contempt in which I now held him. “You and I are going to have a little chat,” I muttered. “Don’t be nervous, Ruin—if you’re one of the good guys, then we’re on the same team. And we don’t hurt people who are on our team… right?”
I felt a grim sense of satisfaction when his eyes flickered to Bren, and he didn’t answer.
That’s right you little cuntcake… I’m on her team now.