Six of Ruin (Heirs of Irenwell #1) ✔

Chapter 35: Buried Truths

The cuts on my skin still burned, but the blood stopped flowing. I felt unsafe walking through the forest with Ace, but I also felt like I had no other choice.

We didn't even see his magic coming. I knew something changed in the air, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. If it had been some other mage, we'd be dead. We were weak, untrained and unfamiliar with magic as a weapon, which was a serious problem, considering there was a High Mage at our heels.

And the High Mage in our own group turned untrustworthy.

I pouted all the way, "Why did you do that?"

"I like watching you squirm in pain." Ace pushed away the branches which became thicker and dryer the further we went. The warthog hopped ahead, still carrying our luggage.

"That's cruel." I mumbled.

"Cruel?" Ace laughed out loud. "My father used to torture me to teach me endurance. You haven't seen cruel, Princess."

"So?" I stomped angrily towards him, "You're adamant to repeat the cycle?"

"Life is a cycle, deal with it."

"Sure, when you refuse to change." I crossed my hands on my chest, not even caring a couple of branches almost cut my face.

"Change isn't real." He was a few trees away from me and I barely kept up the pace.

"Goddess, you're infuriating." I whined, unsure how to feel.

On the one hand, I was angry beyond belief. On the other, I knew my anger would be met with nonchalance and indifference. Ace did this all the time; he disregarded one's feelings, making one ultimately feel like a fool for having any in the first place.

"What do you want me to say?" Ace pushed a branch out of his face. "That people change? Grow? Become better?"

"Yes!"

The mage turned around, something almost melancholy shimmering in his wild eyes, "You're young, you believe in change. I know change is nothing but an illusion. The world has always been and will always remain the same. It will shed you and me like old skin and continue its everlasting repetition."

I brushed off a strange blue bug that flew in my face, "You know what? You have a habit of projecting your own flaws onto the world."

Ace cocked his head, a bored frown clinging to his brows.

"Oh, don't look at me like that." I put my hands on my hips. "You know I'm right. The great wizard is immoral, therefore the world is immoral. The great wizard doesn't change, so the world doesn't change. You're the one who's continuing your everlasting repetition, Ace. I bet if I had met you five hundred years ago, it would have been the same you I know now."

His eyes flickered with surprise. It disappeared as quickly as it came.

The mage nodded. "You're trying to read me like you're reading a sex-deprived stable boy. Think deeper, Princess."

"Well," I refused to give in, "There's a sex-deprived stable boy within us all and he's blaming the rest of the world for his own flaws."

"Gods," Ace laughed, "You remind me of your great-grandmother. You Lorenth women are all the same."

"What did you call me?" I buried my feet in the ground, refusing to move. The warthog would have to drag me further.

"Lorenth." Ace came a step closer. "There's another side of your ancestry and it hasn't always been so royal. Your female ancestors were filthy whores."

I gasped.

Shock gripped my features, "How dare you, you stupid magician!?"

"Oh, come on!" Ace rolled his eyes. "Your mother hung out with Fae Folk. Everyone knows you don't just hang out with Fae Folk, you either fuck them or they kill you. And judging by the number of Fae trinkets you carry around, it's safe to say your mother did a lot of... surviving amongst their kind."