Six of Ruin (Heirs of Irenwell #1) ✔

Chapter 50: Bargaining

Hey there! Only five  chapters left and Six of Ruin is complete. Thank you so much for reading this story! Much love <3

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My first instinct was to curse, so I did that.

"Oh, you asshole!" Very unladylike. "You're joking, right? This is not the moment for your games, Ace. Goddess, I thought we were becoming friends, or at least partners, but no! Ace the Great Asshole must have a scheme up his sleeve. Goddess forbid you actually had a soul."

Ace raised his eyebrow.

"No! Do not discredit my anger by mocking me!" I shouted. "Don't you have any respect?"

Ace let out a small laugh, "I do respect you, Princess. I think you're smart and capable, which is why I'm letting you in on, as you called it, my scheme. If I hadn't respected you, I would have outright fooled you. Now, if you want to curse me, go ahead, but your friends up there need my help and if you want me to help them, you will at least listen to what I have to say."

His words struck a cord between tension, anticipation and fear.

"What do you want me to do?"

Ace picked up the gold pieces that dropped from the box when we unsealed it.

"I want you to give me your Fae pedant."

My brows furrowed, "Why?"

"Give me the pedant." Ace spread out his hand.

Cursing under my breath, I unclasped my mother's pedant, which shimmered pale green, and handed it to Ace. According to the pedant, he wasn't a threat to me, which offered little comfort now.

I frowned at Ace when he opened the pedant.

"Hey!"

He poured the liquid over the floor.

I stepped forward, "What are you doing?"

"You won't be needing that. You know who your enemies are now." Ace put the empty pedant down, unscrewed the lid of the Ir-kaal-locking spell, and poured the contents of that into the pedant.

My eyes widened, "What are you doing?"

"You're going to take this spell."

"Wait a moment, what?" I backed away. "That's clearly a dangerous spell, Ace, I can't-"

"You will take this spell with you to Irenwell." Ace cut in. "There are no mages in Irenwell, which means no one will sense it. And you will bring it to the Fae forest on the fourth full moon after the winter solstice. I'll be there."

"Very confident for someone who might not survive today." I put my hands on my hips.

Ace closed the pedant carefully and put it on the wooden table. Then, he placed a piece of gold on top and gestured to come closer.

"I'm going to need your blood."

"You're scaring me."

"Your blood, your Grace. Or everyone finds out you're a mage."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and approached. Ace took a small dagger out of his pocket and pressed against my thumb, opening up the wound Rixen inflicted before. The cut stung, but Ace's behaviour stung more.

The blood dripped on the gold, and while Ace murmured foreign words, the gold melted, coating the entire pedant.

"What did you do?" I whispered.

"I sealed the pedant." Ace murmured. "Now your blood is the only thing preventing someone from unlocking Ir-kaal."

"Are you insane?" I pulled my hand back. "Everyone is going to come after me!"