Edge Of Ruin Novels & Stories

Elena’s pulse exploded. “What is it?!” The man met her gaze. “A timed release.” Her blood ran cold. “No.” “Yes.” The screen shifted again— Multiple servers. Multiple locations. Uploading. Distributing. Her chest tightened painfully. “You’re going to leak all of it?” she asked. “Not all,” he said. “Just enough.” “Enough to what?” “Burn everything down.” Her heart slammed violently. “That will destroy innocent people too!” “Collateral,” he said simply.

But curiosity had always been my fatal flaw. ‎ ‎My fingers trembled as I approached a shelf, drawn to a black folder with a photograph sticking out. I quickly turned on my flashlight to see a man in an expensive suit shaking hands with another figure whose face was circled in red ink. Notes scrawled in Daniel’s sharp handwriting covered the margins: “offshore accounts, money laundering, eliminate loose ends.” ‎ ‎The blood in my veins turned to ice water. ‎

MAYA The house was too quiet. It had been six months since the metal of the car crumpled like paper. Six months since the world I built out of lies fell apart in a spray of shattered glass and screaming tires. I was the one who survived. I was the one who woke up from the coma. But sometimes, when I look at the empty space in our bed or the way Liam looks at his phone, I think the wrong person died that night.

But it was removed a day before I was given away to Soren. I can escape this one. I run forward, grabbing onto the metal and pulling myself up. My foot slips. Shit. It’s slippery. I fall back hard, pain shooting through my side. I grit my teeth and try again, managing to get higher this time. A sharp metal pierces my skin and I whimper. But there is no backing out. I didn’t come this far to retreat. “You’re dumb if you think you can make it over that gate without getting killed.”

“It is not. My old marker existing at all is a failure. I should have cleared every connection after Isla left. I didn’t. That is mine.” I watched him. “Why didn’t you?” “Because I treated the aftermath like a closed operation, not a person with routes that could survive the operation.” He said it without decoration. “That is the danger in my method. It works until it leaves a living edge.” I folded my arms. “And now that living edge is cutting through my life.” “Yes.” The honesty was cold, but it was real. With Noah, real often arrived without comfort. “I need to know you are not going to hide the next piece because you think I can’t handle it,” I said.

“Let’s go.” Elior turned back to the horizon. The sky burned above them. The world was coming apart. And there was only one place left to find the truth. He tightened his grip on his sword. The Celestial Ruins awaited.

All Edward's old friend wants is for him to acknowledge their feelings towards each other. "Well that error from our past, is one of the most dangerous and ruthless errors that WE created! We did that! And now he's back for revenge. It's already worse that we know of him what if it's all of them? Fuck!" Edward paces the length of the room frantically with his back to his friend. "Edward, calm down. I'll fix it." The stranger stands behind him and rests his hands on Edward's shoulders, moving his hands in circular motions trying to ease the tension.

It became the desperate need to prove a point. I and Ghost were desperate to prove a point to one another so much that we were willing to burn the world to the ground. Winning was my endgame. Ghost was after all a common messenger and I was the head of La famiglia. The Rodriguez famiglia. A name not to be toyed with. I couldn’t lose. But I fought that battle, spilled so much blood until I became blood sickened. Of course my inability to take a life by my own hands had set me back. My reputation was ruined and once again, it was proven that all I was was just a pretty face and a sharp mind.

There was no saving him now. I sighed. "I warned you before. If you had listened and taken him to the hospital for early intervention, the risk could have been greatly reduced. Or I could have operated to remove the damaged nerves." I glanced at my scarred hands and shook my head. "But now, it's too late." My hands were destroyed, and I could no longer perform such delicate surgeries. Celine swayed and fainted. Jenny clutched me tightly. She shook her head and screamed, "Impossible! You're lying! You're still holding a grudge over his infidelity, right? You can save him. You're a top specialist from abroad! How could you fail?"

And I stood there, staring at the sister I thought I knew, realizing that what broke me wasn’t just losing my fiancé… it was losing the one person I never thought would hurt me like this. The sound of my mother’s sobs echoed through the house, and Adira’s last whisper trembled through the air… “I never meant to fall in love with him… but I did.” And that was when I realized… this wasn’t the end of something. It was the beginning of ruin. “Did you just say you love him???!!"