Chapter 51 The Queen
~ brEN ~
Despite my brothers’ misgivings at letting Ruin go, I insisted.
I needed to stand against his lies and tell the truth.
Let him see I wasn’t afraid. I’d show the others what honor looked like, whether they believed me or not.
I knew Donavyn and my brothers wouldn’t let him kill me.
But as long as he arrogantly mocked me, I would face him down.
I wouldn’t walk away from this moment with any more shame or regrets.
I told the truth, and to hell with anyone who didn’t believe me. They could stand before God when their time came and babble about why they’d been deceived. I would walk away from this with a clear conscience.
But then Ruin staggered as he got to his feet and my heart rose. I wasn’t sure he’d swallowed enough of the powder I slammed into his teeth to actually knock him out, but it looked like he felt the effects of the portion he had.
As he made it to his feet, he made a great show of brushing himself off. But his movements were jerky. Uncertain. I watched him blink and frown as if he struggled to clear his vision.
And I smiled.
Then, above us, the dragons called and he looked up—and almost toppled over backwards. He had to take a quick, stumble step to catch his own weight, then spread his feet and arms to balance.
He caught my smile and his eyes narrowed. “What the fuck did you do to me, bitch?” he growled.
Donavyn tensed at my side, but I put one hand to his arm and shook my head without taking my eyes off Ruin. “I let you underestimate me one last time. It won’t happen again.”
“Fuckin’ poisoned me?”
“I evened the playing field,” I said and smiled at him just as maliciously as he’d smiled at me earlier. “But since you’re such a real Furyknight, I’m sure you’ll beat me anyway… right?”
“Bren,” Donavyn muttered, but I was done backing down from this asshole. Or anyone else who wanted to believe dark things about me.
“Where’s your mole, now, Ruin?” I asked quietly.
His eyes narrowed. “You’re the only rat here.”
“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. I was never connected enough. If they believe your childish lies, that makes them the fools for following you.”
“No one’s foolish for following me. I win,” Ruin said, then looked around the launch hollow with that arrogant smile… only to discover man after man staring. Not cheering. Not smiling.
Ruin frowned and I smiled. “I told them. No, I showed them. That’s the thing you don’t seem to understand, Ruin,” I said breathlessly. “Those of us with real honor and bonds… our dragons trust us. And we trust them. And they know when we’re telling the truth.”
Ruin snapped his head to scowl at me. “What the fuck did you do?”
When I smiled wider, he looked over my shoulder, glaring a challenge at Donavyn, who stiffened. I stepped between them and drew Ruin’s gaze back to me.
“You aren’t winning today,” I said simply. And my smile was genuine, because I knew…
I was Chosen.
I was a Furyknight.
I was Shadowfang.
I had revealed the truth about this asshole. And if he somehow lived through this, I’d spend the rest of my days making sure he’d never be trusted again. No matter what it took.
But my heart nearly exploded in my chest when, just as that thought rang in my head, Ruin flowed forward and almost took my head off with backhanded hammer-fist. I ducked and rolled to avoid the kick he was a half-a-second too slow to land, which would have broken a bone if he’d connected.
I rolled back to my feet and in a defensive stance to see Ruin grimacing and shaking his head.
“Something bothering you, Ruin?” I taunted him.
He scowled and focused on me again. “You need to shut your mouth, slut.”
The word pinched in my chest, but I ignored it. “You forfeited the right to speak on my character the day you betrayed your own, Ruin. Just because you didn’t listen when I said no, doesn’t mean the word wasn’t spoken.”
He sneered, and opened his mouth.
I took a stranglehold on my fear and raised my voice.
“This man raped me,” I told the entire launch hollow.
“He took me against my will—and fed me to his friends who were also Furyknights. They all used me and left me to bleed. Ruin Galdec isn’t a Furyknight.
He’s a monster. And I’m not the only one he betrayed—”
I cut off as Ruin’s eyes widened and he came for me. And this time he wasn’t smiling.
From the first moment, I was on the back foot. If he was muddled by the drug, either it hadn’t worked, or he was able to fight anyway, because I saw no sign of his staggering.
When Ruin Galdec set his mind to causing bodily harm, he was a weapon.
I turned and slid, punched and blocked, barely holding him off.
Donavyn danced behind me, worried and raging in the bond, wanting to jump in and save me despite his own exhaustion.
But I held caution for him and kept facing Ruin, no longer trying to harm him—instead, holding him off and looking for my opening.
Because he wasn’t the only weapon in reach.
But I knew that unless I left my only hope for finishing him until the very moment it could take his life, he’d take it from me, and I’d be forced to ask Donavyn and my brothers to save me.
Please. Let me win this. Please.
I was exhausted and hungry, worried about my dragon, and aware of a battle in the skies over our heads.
My mate hovered behind me, his heart swelling with pride and fear, while my former lover accused me of having no character and betraying my kingdom.
When in fact, he was the one who embodied both.
Justice is supposed to be easy, I thought as he took another swing and I was forced to throw myself down and roll again, Ruin chasing me across the grass.
But as I rolled back to my feet and blocked a kick from him that shuddered in my forearm with such jangling pain I worried he might have broken it, I was grim.
True justice seemed elusive when the truth could only be spoken in black and white, while liars were able to say anything, or do anything, to make themselves be heard.
‘Don’t give up, Bren,’ Akhane urged me in the bond. ‘You stand on the firm foundation of truth. Do not let him make you believe you can be toppled from that place.’
The problem was, it wasn’t truth I thought Ruin could remove from me, but my life.
I was weak, and slowing. And even though Ruin panted, and his movements were sluggish, it only helped me evade him.
He was still stronger. If he managed to take me out, and Carnage defeated Kgosi, Donavyn would be so weakened—if not dead himself—I feared that everyone would pay for my inability to face a man hand-to-hand.
Then Ruin dove at me and I stumbled, tumbling backwards, dropping straight onto my tailbone with a cry. His eyes lit up.
A sympathetic hiss rose from the men watching, but in the corner of my eye, Donavyn darted forward. If I didn’t end this now, he’d intervene, and my brothers with him.
But Ruin had me down, using his body weight to pin me to the grass. For a moment I felt a hardness on my thigh and instinctive fear exploded in my belly.
As I fought to keep him off, and he chuckled in my face, whispering promises of pain and punishment for my traitorous choices, I cursed myself for my weakness, and him for his impenetrable strength.
I willed Donavyn to give me moments longer—but when Ruin braced a forearm under my jaw, pressing down to cut off my air, I thought I was done.
Yet, as always, his arrogance was his downfall.
With a menacing smile, he braced his free hand on the grass above my shoulder and sneered, “On your back again, just where you belong—right, Donavyn?”
The rage that exploded in my chest was second only to the molten lava that burst in a volcanic eruption in Donavyn’s heart.
As my mate roared, and threw himself towards us, Ruin’s eyes flickered up to see him coming—and my brothers darting aside to intervene.
I took advantage of his distraction and slipped the blade out of the sheath at my hip and whipped it up to the corner of his jaw, piercing him with its point so that, as we stared at each other, small drops of blood pooled under its tip, then pattered to my leathers.
“I told you, Ruin,” I croaked, because he still held pressure on my throat, though I could breathe now that he’d frozen. “It’s not size that matters, it’s how you use it. One of these days, you’ll learn to listen to when a woman speaks.”
An inky dark shadow rolled behind his eyes and for a moment I thought he might actually snap my neck, even with the watching crowd.
But instead, his eyes narrowed and his lips peeled. “Do it,” he snarled through gritted teeth. “Do it, Bren—kill me,” he challenged, a strange, avid light in his eyes.
And that was how I found myself laying on the ground, under the weight of Ruin, with a blade to his jugular, frozen stiff.
The world shrank to the sight of his burning eyes, the pain in my body, and the memory of my brother’s words, spoken weeks earlier.
“Have you ever killed a man before, Bren?” Gil’s gaze was dark.
“No. Have you?”
Gil gave me a look, then continued as if I hadn’t asked.
“One thing that’s important in the Fang, is that we’re honest with ourselves about our weaknesses and limitations.
If you’ve never killed a man before, it’s likely you’ll hesitate at the very least—and a hesitation in a situation like this can mean anything from being overpowered, to dying yourself.
Your assessment is correct, but you must have an alternative plan… ”
Mentally, I scrambled. I wanted him dead. I wanted him gone. I knew he was evil and this world would be better without him.
I dug that point in a little deeper. “Let. Me. Go.”
Ruin’s eyes widened, and he stiffened. But just as the pressure on my throat eased, just as I thought for sure his cowardice would win over his arrogance, he leaned down so our noses almost touched.
“Make me,” he whispered.
Then he smiled.