Page 117 of Fractured
“I guess we won’t know for sure until Rune returns.” My stomach fell all the way to my heels. “He will return,” Raja whispered. “He will.”
And I thought so, too. Iscreamedthe same words inside my head over and over, but then there was this other monstrous thought that always seemed to scream louder.
“What if he doesn’t?”
The words tasted like bile on my tongue.
“He’s smart,” was Raja’s reply, which could have made me laugh.
“And he’s not only going against a fucking army, but against a manyouyourself said has had centuries to perfect his magic skill.” I turned to Raja. “Be honest with me. What are the odds that if they fight, Rune wins?”
She flinched again and tried to sit up straighter, but she must have forgotten she was wounded somewhere on her side because she hissed and sat back down, hunched over.
“What are the odds, Raja?” I demanded, even though she pressed her hand over the left side of her chest, close to her underarm, and closed her eyes as she breathed.
“Low,” she spit through gritted teeth.
Low.
If Rune tried to fight his father, he wasnotgoing to win.
I swallowed hard, pretended I wasn’t burning on the inside by the sudden cold that covered all my bones in a layer of frost.
“And do you think there will be a fight?”
Raja opened her eyes. Looked at me. Didn’t answer.
That was answer enough for me.
“She’s worse now than she was yesterday,” Vair said from my other side, while Raja turned to the waterfall again, composed, controlling her breathing, pretending she wasn’t hurting.
“I know,” I told Vair. Whatever wound the breaking of that mark had caused on her, it was there on the left side of her chest.
“It’s the remnants of the seal,” Vair continued. “Which is, in nature, a curse.”
“Yes.” Just like the seer said.
“Nilah.” A paw over my knee, and I turned to look at Vair. “Frostfire cleanses curses.”
Everything came to a halt. “What?”
“Frostfire,” Vair said. “When used properly, can undo a curse. Cleanse the magic that made it.”
I shook my head. “What…what are you saying?”
“I’m saying you’re weak still and I’m saying you have a long way ahead of you to learn how to properly use it—but this woman has a part of the curse she broke attached to her,” Vair said. “And I’m sayingmaybeyou can cleanse her of it.”
Now,thesewords I understood just fine, and at the same time I wished I hadn’t.
“What is it? Are you talking? What is the pet saying?”
I turned to Raja, and she’d made an effort to push the hair that had come out of her bun back. Had made an effort to sit in a way that would hide the fact she was hurt.
“You can try it, Nilah. It might work, or it might not—but you can try it,” Vair whispered, putting both paws over my knee now so that he was lying over my leg.
“What is it?” Raja said, and she suddenly looked afraid.
“Where is your wound?” I asked her—and I must have lost my fucking mind. “Show me.”
