Page 155 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

Time dragged to a crawl.

I was on the ground, Ruin’s weight pinning me, his smiling face filling my vision. We were far enough from the others that they wouldn’t hear a whisper—but not for long.

So, as I struggled, I threw my mind open to Akhane—giving her everything. Every memory. Every feeling. Every fear. Telling her to use what she could and to tell the dragons to keep my brothers back.

‘Share all of it, Akhane. And let the dragons see and hear what I can see and hear.’

Then I scowled at Ruin’s smug face. “They might think you’re a good man, but we both know the truth.”

His smile grew. “It’s not my fault you’re a horny little filly, Brenny.”

I screamed at him like a cat, struggling until I saw stars, and he laughed, holding me so I couldn’t move. But I kept my mind open to Akhane and through tears of pure rage, I seethed. “I didn’t want you or your brothers that day, you bastard.”

“Aw, but you took us all so well,” he purred.

“Is that the kind of loyalty you show the king?” I whimpered, showing Akhane my memories—Ruin’s lies, those men invited into our private clinch, the fear and pain…

“The king is my brother,” he chuckled. “Don’t blame yourself, Bren. You were never able to win. I know plenty of men who’d win for you if you’d just stop fighting the truth of what you are.”

I slumped in his grip and he beamed. He thought I was giving up, but I just shook my head at him. “Do you really believe you’ll never pay for your crimes—against me, or this kingdom?” I asked him quietly.

He leaned in and I mentally screamed at Akhane to listen and share with the others.

“It’s not a crime when the king sets the mission, Bren. Don’t you understand yet?” He tipped his chin so his breath fluttered in my ear. “I’m doing exactly what I was told to do. That makes you the problem.”

I shuddered at the sensation of his breath on my neck, but it wasn’t me who raised a scream of protest. It was one of the dragons.

Ruin was so busy smiling at me, he didn’t notice the sudden shift in the herd around the launch hollow, the raised heads and fluttering wings. Akhane had shown them—and just as I suspected, it had never occurred to Ruin that I’d share such shame with my dragon.

The man who obscured everything. Who lied always. Who hid his mind… he’d never expect me to show my weakness to the herd.

As he saw it, none of these men would ever choose honor over strength. Even if they learned what had really happened, what he’d really done—even if the king was revealed as a traitor—he had still proven that I was the woman who couldn’t take a man down one-on-one. He believed I’d be a joke. Someone who needed to be protected in the field, rather than trusted.

And I knew that if I hadn’t been willing to weather the storm of the men who’d question this, he’d be right.

Every bone in my body sang with the injustice of it. Every sense I possessed, screamed.

Ruin still held me as I pretended to give in, to slump. I let my head fall to the side, and my chest heave as if I sobbed.

And sure enough, his grip on my wrists loosened.

There was a split second—a moment when he had one hand braced on the ground to push himself to his feet, his expression smug and patronizing, and his head turned, his attention finally caught by the dragons milling, and their unease.

So, I opened my fist that I’d clutched tight since he took me to the ground and slammed that vial straight at his teeth.

His face scrunched into a grimace as the glass shattered, slicing his lip and covering his teeth in an ugly mix of the powder and his own blood. He jerked off me instinctively—wiping his face, swallowing, spitting, cursing. But the moment he realized I’d scrambled to my feet, he roared and came for me.

My brothers rushed forward with a shout as I stumbled back, smiling at Ruin—but there was an almighty roar, and whomph, whomph, whomph in the sky.

To our right, amid milling dragons, Carnage screamed and threw himself into a run.

Dragonfuries roared. Men shrank.

Then Kgosi swooped, screaming, into the launch hollow, his claws brushing the dirt as Donavyn swung free of his seat and dropped to the earth with a shout, rolling, then springing to his feet, still running, as Kgosi flapped up and up, in pursuit of Carnage who’d just launched, both of them roaring.

Ruin’s eyes went wide. He screamed at his dragon as he wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. But then he snapped his head down to glare at me. “What the fuck—”

The dragons were in chaos—hundreds of wild dragons beginning to wheel and tighten, screaming and calling in response to Carnage’s roars. Vosgaarde dragons on the ground, and in the nearby forest, raised their shrieks of protest—against Ruin, as well as the invaders. Men on every side cursing, confused. And angry.