Page 104 of Fractured
That’s where we stayed for a long time.
thirty
Eventually,I was able to stop crying. My cheeks dried and this pressure I’d had over my shoulders released, and I was even able to remember where we were and to look around, to make sure my memory wasn’t lying to me.
A cave underneath a sea at the edge of Verenthia. We were sitting on the lip of the world—andthiswasn’t even the most senseless thing to have happened that day.
I was half sitting on Rune’s lap, and he was breathing evenly, eyes closed, head resting behind him on a piece of dark grey stone. Asleep—and he had stubble on his cheeks. I’d never seen Rune with facial hair before. It almost made him look like a different person.
Slowly, I raised my hand to touch him but decided against it. He was asleep. Maybe he needed the rest. I could stay here for a while longer. I could stay sitting next to him forever, if need be.
Vair was there, too.
I was surprised to find him with his glowing silvery white fur lying down on the rocks very near the edge, chin resting on his paws. He was looking at the water pouringdown into the nothingness—or maybe his eyes were closed. I couldn’t really see his face.
I thought,a flat world.Verenthia was indeed flat, and I realized I hadn’t actually believed it until now. Not because I thought someone was lying to me, but because I literally didn’t know how to even imagine an entire flat world.
Until now.
The water kept on pouring, in some parts more heavily, in some lighter. The sound of it was soothing, and it helped in keeping the thoughts in my head drowned, but not for long.
The entrance was but a dark hole in the stone surface just a little to my left, and on the other side of it sat Raja with a book in her hand, her sword unsheathed and by her side, her breathing even. Calm.
And I was calm, too, for now. Vair and Rune—we were all calm.
Unfortunately, it felt like the calm before the storm.
“Are you up?”
Rune’s voice made my heart skip a beat. I moved my head up a little to see his eyes half open—he was awake.
“Yes. I thought you were sleeping.”
His hand closed over my cheek and he brought his lips to mine for a kiss.
Just like that, I was a little less broken.
“Finally, you’re both awake—good.”
Raja’s voice made us move back and look at her. She’d stood up, her book gone, only her sword in her hand. Vair was no longer looking out there, either, but lazily making it to his feet, stretching his neck.
“Because we need to talk,” Raja said.
I almost laughed—that was an understatement. Wereally needed to figure out a shitload of things here today. Or tonight?
I had no idea how much time had passed but beyond that water falling was only darkness.
Vair came and sat near my legs, bright blue eyes focused on the small bird made out of light that had been resting on the edge of a rock over us. Now, he was slowly beating his wings and coming closer, and I thought he was looking at Vair, too.
It was Rune who moved him, I knew that, but when the little bird stopped right in front of Vair, who looked up at him curiously, his nose almost touching the bird’s beak, I could have sworn that the bird had a consciousness, too, even if it was just Rune’s magic. And to see them like that, sharing a moment together face to face, it filled me with warmth. Vair really did sometimes feel to me like the little bird. Like a friend.
The bird flew away again, up over our heads, and Vair watched him for a moment longer. Then he looked at Rune, analyzed him in silence, and finally turned to me.
“He hasn’t changed much,” Vair told me—but he didn’t sound pissed off, only curious.
“I’m actually glad you saw that, too.” Because, eventually, I’d have been tempted to distrust my own memory. Ithadhappened before.
“I did see. Through your eyes,” Vair said, and I turned to find Rune staring at me with lips slightly parted.
