Page 108 of Fractured
“Because it’s the only way,” she said.
Words died on my tongue. I wanted to say,I agree,but then…
“It’s not going to happen,” Rune said, and that sounded a lot more reasonable.
“I can do it,” Raja insisted. “I can remove the rest of it.” Except even she didn’t sound like she believed her own self.
“You’re still wounded,” I said, looking down at her body. Her dress was black, and it covered her all the way up to her neck, so I couldn’t see her wound. But it was there. Vair had smelled it. The seer had seen it.
“I’m fine,” Raja said, but Rune leaned closer to her.
“Are you still wounded, Raja?” And he sounded like he was ready to unleash a goddamn storm upon us.
“Like I said—” Raja started, but I wasn’t going to let her finish.
“Vair can smell her blood. The seer said she was,” I told Rune, and the woman looked at me like she suddenly wanted to burn me alive. “The seer said that part of the curse she broke still clung to her, and that she should take care of it because the stars have big plans for her still.” He squeezed my hand between his. “She said she was expecting Raja’s return, too.”
And Raja was now looking down at the cave floor, jaws clenching so hard we could hear her teeth popping.
Rune looked at me, confused—curious. “There is another way to lift the mark.”
“No,” Raja and I said at the same time.
Because we both knew whathemeant, too—he meant through his father.
“He marked me. He can take it back,” said Rune.
“He wouldn’t, Rune, and you know it. Just the fact that Lyall tried to get you in front of him tells you all you need to know.” It was clear as day.
“Hewillkill you the moment he sees you,” Raja said.
“And besides—it doesn’t matter, does it?” I turned to him, put my hand on his cheek. “It doesn’t matter why when it’s all done now. We know the truth.” I flinched. “Mostof the truth. We don’t need to know more to get out of here.”
Silence for a moment, the kind that scared me a little. Both Rune and Raja were looking down, the wheels in their heads turning.
And Vair put a paw over my knee to get my attention. “The truth is important, Nilah.”
Didn’t I fucking know it.
I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply.
“The Midnight fae is right. The Ice Queen was a very smart woman. She wouldn’t have sacrificed herself like this if she didn’t have a reason.”
Sacrificed.“Or maybe she just wanted to stay alive,” I muttered, and Rune and Raja didn’t even react—they knew I was talking to Vair.
The lynx shook his head. “If she’d meant to stay alive, she would have been here now. She’snotalive. She’s…forever torn.” He stood up, turned and sat right to my side, looking at me with those wide eyes. The others turned to him, too, watched him even though they couldn’t hear the words coming out of his mouth.
“Do you understand what it means to tear a soul?”
“I’ve read Harry Potter.” Which he already knew. I’d told him the story back in the Ice Palace.
“This is not a tale, Nilah. A torn soul is the ultimate price to pay—whywould the queen pay it?”
A lump in my throat. The voices in my head whispered, and some screamed—but in the end, it didn’t matter, did it?
“We’re all tired,” Rune then said. “Let’s take some time to rest and think.”
I didn’t want to do either of those things, but I also didn’t want to keep talking. To keepthinking.
