A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(4)

“You’re doing it,” Tejus whispered as the bubble encased us.

Just in time. The rocks of the tower screamed, stone grinding against stone as the aged mortar crumbled away to dust. It collapsed, covering the barrier that we’d created, shutting out every ounce of light, and making the earth shudder on impact.

The moment rocks hit the barrier, I howled in pain. It was as if each stone had landed on my head—but inside my brain, ricocheting around my skull, knocking every nerve, muscle and bone in my body. The edges of my vision started to turn gray.

“Tejus…” I murmured, unable to get any more words out as the world felt like it was fluttering away to nothingness.

“It’s all right, I’ve got it—I can hold it.”

I heard his reassuring murmur like it was traveling down a long, long tunnel.

“Everyone’s safe,” he continued.

Everyone’s safe.

We’re all okay.

I let go of his hand, yearning for rest and hardly able to keep my eyes open for another second.

Benedict’s startled expression was the last thing I saw; he was looking up at me from the ground, his eyes wide and disbelieving as I smiled and then fell, gratefully, into unconsciousness.





Ash





As the bird continued on toward Hellswan castle, I looked down at the complete devastation below me. A large crack split Nevertide in two, like a gaping, smirking mouth across the landscape. Smaller cracks hair-lined off it, the roots of trees exposed by landslides, as if the forests and fields were sloping down into the center of the world. Villages lay in ruins, barns burning, and most homes looked as if they’d collapsed entirely, falling over as if they were made out of paper, not stone.

A cloud of smoke rushed up to meet us, momentarily blinding me in a thick fog, and when it passed, I got my first look at Hellswan castle. Or what was left of it.

Ruby!

She was my one and only thought as I looked down at the annihilation of my home. The main fortress of the castle was just about still intact, but every other inch of it lay sprawling outward, nothing more than rubble, with the black dots of ministers swarming around the wreckage like confused ants.

Queen Trina groaned next to me. She was still out of it, her eyes closed and her body limp in the talons of the vulture.

This is your fault.

A large part of me wanted to drop her down to the land below—to watch her somersault through the air until she landed like a rag doll on the rocks or was swallowed up by fire. It would serve her right: this was her doing, every dead sentry, every crack and split in Nevertide on her hands—evidence of her betrayal of her own people. If Queen Trina lived and Ruby didn’t, I would never forgive myself – or her.

As we drew closer to the castle, I realized that the tremors and the shifting of the ground had come to a halt. The crack in Nevertide wasn’t widening any further, for now, but I didn’t know if this would be a brief reprieve or the end of the entity’s destructive force on the land.

I need to get them to safety.

We dropped down just outside the portcullis where most of the ministers and guards were gathered, all flapping about like headless birds. I anxiously searched the crowd for a familiar blonde head, but I didn’t see her.

“Ashbik!” one of the guards cried out, and my name was echoed across the waiting group. I shoved Queen Trina to the floor, and the bird took off in flight once again, no doubt to find a safer spot than here.

“Watch her! She’s not to move—if she wakes, secure her to something,” I instructed, pointing at five waiting guards who appeared to be only partly injured. “The rest of you wait here, by the entrance. Do not leave—you all wait for my command, is that clear?” I roared out.

I heard the resounding chorus of ‘yes, your highness’. Had it been under other circumstances, the meek and mild response of the ministers would have made me laugh. As it was, I didn’t care whether they stayed here or not, not really. I just wanted to find Ruby.

I looked at the other guards; there were three who weren’t injured at all, and I beckoned them over.

“I’m going to search for the humans, you’re to follow me.”

“Your highness, no one will have gotten out alive—the towers, everything—it collapsed,” stuttered one of them, avoiding meeting my eye.

“We’ll find them,” I repeated implacably.

The ministers stood aside hurriedly as I walked toward the portcullis. I didn’t bother checking to see if the guards had followed my lead. I was going anyway. Using True Sight, I scanned the entrance of the castle while walking closer to the worst of the rubble. The sight made me sick. There were at least fifteen sentries—some ministers, some servants—who had been caught in the rock as it had fallen down, crushing all of them. The only mercy would have been that they would have died quickly.

Please don’t let Ruby…

I couldn’t even finish the thought. The idea that she had met the same fate was unimaginable.

Searching every single pile of rubble, including the interior of the blocked-off main fortress, I anxiously sought her out, looking for any sign of the rest of the humans, Tejus or Hazel.

“There are sentries trapped in there,” I muttered to the guards. Inside the main fortress I could see ministers who were still alive, trying to remove the rubble that blocked their paths. Already their movements were becoming slow and weak. “One of you go and fetch more who are able to help—we need to start trying to get them out. They’re going to suffocate in there otherwise.”