Page 17 of Fractured
“Nobody saw the bastard coming, though,” Merenith said, and she said itproudly.Like she meant that word as a compliment just now when she looked at Rune. “I’ve always had my doubts about you, always thought you might betray the court and the prince. Little did I know.” Her eyes moved to our hands, connected, our fingers intertwined.
“So, why didn’tyoudo it?” I asked Hessa. “That night in the Gallery of Time. Why didn’t you kill me?” She could have. I had been shaken up and terrified and panicked—I wouldn’t have even tried to stop her or move away.
She sighed deeply. “I was going to. When I took you to the tunnel of the Cursed, I was going to kill you and leave your body there to rot.” Her eyes locked on mine, and once more she looked like she was witnessing a ghost. “Then I saw your face and that portrait, and I realized exactly what Helid meant when he said there was something strange about you.”
My lips stretched. “Something worth exploring.” Didn’t that make me feel all kinds of warm and fucking fuzzy.
“Exactly. The face of a fae queen on a mortal—definitely worth exploring,” Hessa said without hesitation.
“And?” I asked, then turned to Merenith. “And now what?” Because all these questions they were answering for me were doing nothing but creatingmorequestions in my mind.
“Now…I don’t know. Helid is dead. I’m not sure how he planned to explore you or why…” Her voice trailed off and Merenith turned to Rune. “Perhapsyoudo?”
“Nilah resembles the Ice Queen,” Rune said, but Hessa didn’t let himfinish.
“No, no—notresembles.She looks identical to the Ice Queen, bastard. You should know—you killed her.”
My blood turned to ice drop by little drop. “Hedidn’tkill anyone,” I said, harder than I intended. “And you claim to be his friend. You must know his memory was locked.”
“I think you sound like her.”
There went my stomach again, twisting like I’d been fucking stabbed for real.
It was Acul who spoke—and he was looking right at me. The words were stuck in my throat and I couldn’t even sayI don’t—I sound like me!
“Did you ever see her face?” Rune asked, and fuck, I didn’t want to hear it. A miracle I didn’t cover my ears for real before the fae answered.
“No. The queen wore her veils, but I did hear her speak once. I was ten, I think,” he said, those wide blue eyes on me still. “Your voice—it brings back that memory.”
My mouth opened. My God, I wasrelievedthat he couldn’t confirm it. I was fucking relieved, and it didn’t sit well with me.
“Regardless,” Hessa said, and maybe it wasn’t right, but I could have kissed her for changing the subject. “Your magic isunlocked,though, isn’t it, Rune? All that power…” Her eyes moved to Rune’s neck, to where the remaining ink of his tattoo was still visible over the collarbone of his shirt. I just noticed that his suit jacket was no longer on him, which was a shame because it had really suited him.
“Is that true?” Merenith asked.
“It is,” Rune said, and it was easy to see that he’d have preferred not to confirm it, but it would be useless to try to deny it when Hessa had seen it with her own eyes.
“He took out the queen with ease—and that bitch is powerful thanks to the throne,” the fae woman said, hereyes bloodshot now as she looked at the dancing flames. I would bet a limb that she could see the Seelie Queen in her mind’s eye when she came and killed Helid because I did, too. I saw it all so clearly my flesh rose in goose bumps the same second.
“I didn’t kill her,” Rune said, to which she flinched. “I knocked her out so we could escape.”
“Too bad,” Hessa muttered, but he ignored it.
“And not all of my mark is undone—only the part of it that sealed my magic.”
Merenith raised a blonde brow. “Why? You could have saved us all a world of trouble if you could only remember.”
And I realized, she could be right.
Fuck, if Rune could actually remember whatever the hell happened at that dinner where he supposedly killed the Ice Queen, we could have had an answer right now without needing to go to a place calledQuiet. Seriously, just the name of that place gave me the creeps.
“Breaking half the seal almost killed the woman who did it—and that’s with dragon bones to take most of the spell’s hit,” Rune said through gritted teeth—which meant hereallydidn’t want to tell these people about this, but he told them anyway.
“Dragon bones,” Merenith whispered.
“The giant,” said Hessa with half a bitter smile. “The giant had bones around his hips. You took them, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, and Rune only nodded.
“Were they destroyed?” Merenith asked, and again, Rune nodded. “And you don’t remember anything?”
