Page 123 of Fractured
This couldn’t be. Rune was on his knees and he had blood on the corner of his mouth, and he didn’t even seem to be conscious. Meanwhile, I was standing thereshakingfrom head to toe and frozen at the same time, trying to figure out still if this was even real, if the soldiers lining the walls were truly there, if the Midnight King really raised his hand towardme.
He did.
Shadows just as thick and dark came out of his fingerswith more ease than Raja could ever make them, or even Rune. She was there, covered in shadows still, wrapped up in them like in a spider’s threads, and she was trying to move, get out, get those shadows off her, even scream. But they only ended over her lips and they kept her perfectly silent.
Just like those shadows coming from the Midnight King were going to do to me.
It was too late to act, I knew it. I wouldn’t know what the hell to do, either, even if I did have another moment, because I was too shocked, too enraged, too afraid—and the mix had resulted in my limbs freezing for real. I couldn’t even run. I couldn’t look away from those shadows coming for me like ribbons of death if I tried.
And then something rose in front of me.
At first, I thought it was just the shadows, that I’d missed their movement and that they’d changed color or something, but no. And it wasn’tlight,either—it was…glass. Maybe ice?
It was a thin, shiny surface that just came up in front of me like a damn wall, and it caught the shadows as they came for me andreflectedthem back like a fucking mirror.
The feel of the magic radiating from it shook me to my core, and finally, I could move. I took half a step back, my blood rushing again, my eyes moving toward the floor, to where Vair stood between me and the Midnight King, and the glass was coming from his fur.
It hadspreadoff his fur like a peacock tail, and you could swear it was nothing but light—a fucking hologram projection—where it rose from the tips of his fur, but then it solidified as it went all the way over my head. It wasreal.
Darkness on theother side.
“Vair,” I whispered, and a little voice came out of me.
The glass suddenly disappeared, and Vair turned to look at me, those bright blue eyes wide—and in the distance, I could just see the Midnight King trying to make it to his feet because he’d been on the ground. Because he’d fallen, attacked by his own shadows that were meant to attackme.
“How…how…” I was moving, walking forward, my eyes on Rune, still unconscious, and on the king, who was looking about him—looking for his crown that must have fallen off his head.
And his voice—“Hold!”
Itfellover me like a fucking shade under the scorching sun, that voice, and he was talking to the soldiers. The countless soldiers who’d unsheathed weapons and had started to run toward him. Towardme.
They stopped. Walked back. Lowered their hands.
“Tread carefully now, Nilah. I am not a weapon. I was merely meant to be her first shield.”
Vair.
His words spun around in my head, refusing to stick. So little made sense that I couldn’t even begin to understand what was truly happening around me.
All I knew was that Rune had yet to open his eyes. All I knew was that I had to get to him,now.
That must have been why I was running.
Fragments of the memory never recorded in my mind, but I did remember Raja screaming as she finally managed to get some of those shadows off her. And I remembered Vair calling my name, and the Midnight King raising a hand toward me again, his crown forgotten—but I ran so damn fast that I was on my knees in front of Rune in a blink.
My hands were ice-cold. I grabbed his face and called his name, possibly without stop. I hardly noticed theshimmerthat was leaving my skin and sticking to his. It didn’t much matter that half his face looked like it was covered in a layer of frost. All that mattered was that he woke up and saw me; otherwise, the magic that had gathered in me was going to tear me apart all over again. It was going to kill me, slice me in half this time for good.
“Wake up, wake up, Rune, look at me,” I said, and there was movement behind me, and shouts and calls, but I didn’t turn. I just continued to kiss him and beg him to open his eyes.
Shimmer on his lips.
Silvery white, identical to Vair’s fur, and it stuck to his lips every time I kissed him, then disappeared as if his skin absorbed it.
I couldn’t tell you how long I remained there or how many times I called his name, but someone up there, god or star, must have felt my desperation because Rune blinked.
Everything came to a halt for me. My ears were suddenly deaf to whatever was happening behind me, and I was sucked into this bubble with only Rune. I heard the sharp intake of breath, the hiss of the air slipping between his parted lips. I saw his pupils dilating when he opened his eyes wide, and they were dark and bloodshot—but he saw me.
Rune saw me. He was definitely alive.
