Page 16 of Renegade Kingdom
Something hot and fierce surged up through my chest. Not grief this time. Not despair.
Anger.
“Fuck him,” I heard myself say.
Ryder’s eyebrows rose. “What?”
“Fuck Arik.” The words came faster now, pouring out of me like poison from a wound. “Fuck him and everything he’s done to this world. Fuck his armies and his nightmares and his endless fucking games. He took Rhidian. He took Damon’s mind. He’s taken so many people and destroyed so many lives and for what? Power? Control?” I was shaking now, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. “He called me his sister like that was supposed to mean something. Like I was supposed to care. Like I’d suddenly fall at his feet because we share some connection I never asked for.”
The magic was rising inside me. I could feel it building, responding to my fury, filling the cabin with a pressure that made my ears pop.
“Well, he can rot in whatever hell Nymeria has waiting for him. Because I’m coming for him. I’m going to tear apart everything he’s built and make him watch. Then when it’s all done, I’m going to be the one standing over his body. Not the other way around.Neverthe other way around.”
I was breathing hard by the time I finished, the words leaving me emptier and somehow lighter at the same time. The magic crackled around us, sparking along my skin, and when I looked up, Ryder was smiling.
“There’s my girl,” he said softly.
The smile transformed his face. Made him look like the Ryder I’d first met. The one with the irreverent grin and the spark in his eyes, before the weight of everything had started to crush him.
I took a breath, trying to calm the magic still swirling through me. But as I reached for control, I felt something... strange.
A pull. A resonance.
Ryder felt it too. I could see it in the way his expression shifted, the way his eyes suddenly glowed with a hint of his wolf. His magic was pushing against mine, not fighting it but... reaching for it. Like two halves trying to become whole.
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
I nodded slowly. “It’s like... like our magic is trying to…”
“Twin together,” he finished. “Yeah. That’s exactly what it feels like.”
We stared at each other for a long moment, both of us caught in the strangeness of it. This was new. This was different. Something about all of our magic being together felt like it was on the verge of becoming something more. Something powerful.
A knock at the cabin door shattered the moment.
Ryder cursed under his breath and went to answer it. One of Rhidian’s crew stood outside, his expression apologetic but urgent.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the man said, “but people are getting restless up on deck. Some of the freed Endless are... there’s talk of…”
“I’ll be right there,” Ryder said, his voice shifting into something more commanding. More like the soldier he’d been trained to be. He looked back at me over his shoulder. “You okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Go.”
He hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave me alone, but the urgency in the crewman’s voice won out. “Don’t take too long,” he said. “We need you up there.”
Then he was gone, and I was alone with the echoes of whatever had just passed between us.
I dressed quickly, pulling on clean clothes that didn’t smell like blood and death. When Ryder returned a few minutes later, I was already feeling more like myself. Still broken, still grieving, but angry now. And anger was fuel. Anger was something I coulduse.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ryder asked.
“I’m tired,” I admitted. “But I need to know what we’re doing next. Standing still is driving me crazy.”
Ryder nodded slowly, understanding in his eyes. Then, carefully, like he wasn’t sure what my reaction would be, he said, “We need to talk to Fizzle.”
I tensed. Just the mention of his name made my jaw tighten.
“I know,” Ryder continued. “I know you’re angry with him. You have every right to be. But there’s something going on with your magic. There was that night before the battle, and just now. Something about all of us being together feels like it’s buildingtoward something, and I think Fizzle knows more than he’s letting on.”
