Page 106 of Fractured
If the Midnight King died, his curse over Rune would be no more.
“What did he say now? Such a nuisance…” Raja said, and I whipped my head to the side, heart beating a mile a minute.
“Nothing, I…” Rune looked at me, eyes wide and dark. Completely irrelevant but that stubble looked really good on him.
“Nothing,” I repeated. “He just says you wouldn’t survive it.” And for now, that was all I was going to say. Because if I told him the truth, who was to say that Rune wouldn’t try to barge into the Midnight Palace and demand his father remove that mark—or worse, try to fight him?
He was a king, and he had soldiers. An entire fucking court to come to his aid. Rune would never make it.
“Tread carefully, Nilah,” Vair whispered, making goose bumps rise all over my skin.
“And you? Where did you hear that she was being held by the pig?” Raja asked Rune, and I was curious to know that part, too.
“Lyall,” he said, and I did a double take.
“Are you serious?!”
“He found me in Mysthaven while I was searching for you and told me that the Midnight King had captured you, that he was holding you here.” He didn’t seem pissed off in the least, but I was.
“Motherfucker!” I shouted, much too loudly, and my voice echoed in the cave.
“How would he have heard?” said Raja, and my blood was fucking boiling.
That conniving little prick—how dare he go lie to Rune like that?!
“He said the queen received word from someone in the king’s court,” Rune said, his eyes coming back to my face every now and again, like he was still expecting me to disappear into thin air.
The pieces of my heart continued to break.
And the reminder of his face when he was just a boy…fuck, how is this possible?
I’d been so, so sure…
“Lies. The queen doesn’t receive shit from this court. There are nosomeonesleft to aid the king.” Raja squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head, the sword right there in front of her knees. “This whole place is coming apart. It’s much worse than I thought.”
I shook my head. “What do you mean?”
“The air. The magic. The fae,” Raja said.
“I felt it, too,” said Rune, and my stomach turned.
“Feltwhat?” And why was this so fucking alarming to me all of the sudden?
“The shadows—they are weaker. Lighter,” Raja answered. “My magic used to flow like water in this land, and now it clings to it like oil.” She flinched. Actually flinched. “The trees that border the other roads that lead to Blackwater used to be sharp. Healthy. When I left, their bark gleamed like wet ink, but now? Their limbs are twisted. They are…spent. Dry.”
“And the lights,” Rune said. “The lights are dimmer. I remember how bright they used to be.”
I felt Vair’s eyes on the side of my face before I turned to look at him. I knew exactly what he was thinking because I was thinking it, too.
“Something’s wrong, something’s wrong—that pig has destroyed this kingdom,” Raja chanted under her breath.
And Vair said, “Are you going to tell themthat?”
Shivers rushed down my spine. “There was rot on the crystals in the Frozen Court,” I whispered, as if he was in charge of my mouth now, too, not just my voice. I knew he wanted me to speak about it, and I did. It felt like I had to. “There were parts of the gardens in the Ice Palace that were completely dead, while others near them were perfectly intact. I don’t know what that means, but…” I held Vair’s eyes. “Vair thought it didn’t used to be like that, either.”
“No, it did not,” the lynx said.
For a moment, we all fell silent, each going over our own thoughts.
