Page 87 of Kept

Loud cracking sounds filled the air, dozens of sharp pops firing over and over. But the sound was muffled, as if it came from a distance.

The shaking stopped.

Everything went still.

But the cracking sounds continued. Knights stood, their eyes wary as they gazed around. Dust filled the air. Everyone searched for the source of the sound.

“There!” a knight shouted.

I followed where he pointed. My stomach dropped to my knees. The Thicket loomed large in the distance, moonlight highlighting the trees. And they were falling. One by one, they crashed to the ground, giants toppling with mighty cracks that echoed all the way to the Rift.

Jordan stepped beside me, his eyes on the Thicket.

“They’re coming.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

GIVEN

I fell.

For hours. For minutes. I got used to falling. Grew weary of waiting for the ground to meet me.

Tumbling through the blackness, I thought of my mother. And then I saw her. Pale and beautiful, she lay on a bed with her weeping ladies around her. Her blue eyes flashed open, and she grasped Rolund’s hand.

“Protect her. It’s important.”

I saw Queen Amantha.

“She’s the wicked product of unholy lust.”

I fell faster, scenes flashing at the edges of my vision.

I saw a tree with silver branches, a crescent moon tipped on its side above it.

I saw the tree set ablaze.

I saw the Rift. Saw Varick waiting for me.

“We’ll start over, you and I.”

Laurent flashed before me, a broken boy rocking on his knees. He prayed for forgiveness he knew he didn’t deserve. He prayed to stop being afraid.

I saw things I shouldn’t have been able to see. Other people’s memories. Varick hiding from his father, his eyes squeezed shut as he pressed his back against a wall in a dark, quiet room. I saw Laurent’s mother bite into Laurent’s wrist and then turn her head and spit out his blood.

“You taste just like him. Pray to the gods that you don’t go mad.”

The visions came faster, flowing like a million rivers. Possibilities and certainties. Mistakes and Tragedies.

Avenor lay on his bed and closed his eyes.

Avenor rode to war.

Avenor terrorized his enemies, showing them possibilities more terrible than death.

“They invited the demons into their bodies,” Rhys said. “They lusted for power.”

There was power in blood.

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