Page 30 of Fractured
Instead, all I saw was white.
It looked silver through half closed lids, and it still covered every inch of the trees and the leaves and the people who’d been around me. I saw their silhouettes on the ground—allof them on the ground, none standing or moving. I even saw a dog lying on his side.
Nothing moved. Nothing breathed, I thought, exceptme.
Excepthim.
I knew I was dreaming when what I’d first thought was just a dot in the distance became bigger and bigger, and grew eyes and a nose, ears and legs. Paws. Silver-white fur.
Such a creature could only be an illusion, like the animals in the Illusion Game Lyall had taken us to. Like that silver fox he’d touched to get his token—that’swhat the animal coming toward me looked like.
Not a fox but close. Bigger. Fur thicker. Eyes an icy bluealmost identical to the ones I saw every time I looked in a mirror.
A blink, and the animal was gone—for good, I thought. And I kept expecting to find everything covered in ice once more when I looked about me, but it wasn’t. Not ice, just color—or maybe drops of water, maybe some kind of strange silvery snow.
Then I felt the touch against my leg.
If I could have jumped and screamed in that moment, I would have. My heart about broke right out of my ribcage, and Rune’s name was at the tip of my tongue.
If only I had voice to call with. If only my jaws were my own to command.
As it was, all I could do was scream on the inside and count each beating of my heart as something cold and hard pressed against my skin, then pulled my leg to the side, turning me on my back.
Teeth. Fur.Icy blue eyes on mine.
My heart no longer beat. If I was dreaming, it no longer mattered. The creature that I was so sure was an illusion wasreal,and it was right there next to me now. Looking down at me. Sniffing the short breaths that left my parted lips.
With all my strength, I prayed for Rune to run before the animal sank its teeth in my neck. I prayed that he would make it, that he would somehow get up and run away and survive Lyall and his soldiers. Get all the way to Raja.
Live.
My eyes closed and I was thankful that my mind was too weak to remain awake through what I was sure would be my ending for real.
The cold had won. It had come out of me.There.Now I died empty.
But I never felt teeth in my neck, and I never felt pain anywhere in my body.
What I felt was the ground underneath me as I was beingdraggedaway over patches of grass. What I felt was the rough bark of the tree that pressed against my arm—or maybe my arm pressed against it.
I fought to open my eyes now, fought to regain consciousness just to see where I was, what was happening, why I was moving. And I did see for a second. Only a short second—something I could have never imagined.
I saw the animal with my ankle between his jaws dragging me toward trees, the leaves of which moved just slightly like they werewaving, like they were underwater.
I saw the edge of the forest, the shore to my side, and the still water beyond; saw half the heads of countless mermaids peeking out of the surface, watching us in perfect silence.
The next time my eyes closed, my mind shut down all the way and I didn’t wake up again.
ten
My heart beat.
I felt it only faintly, right there in my chest—not stabbed, not wounded, but whole, every beat full and complete.
Which was strange as hell because I could have sworn that I’d died at least three times in the past day. By Lyall’s order, by that cold that had sliced its way out of me—and by a creature that had no business being real, that had dragged me away by the leg while mermaids watched, only their foreheads and eyes out of the surface of the Mercove sea.
Such a strange memory that my own self challenged.No way was it real. No way.
Except I’d been here before, hadn’t I? Since the day I crossed the Aetherway, I’d been in this position so many times it wasn’t even funny anymore. So as absurd as the idea thatI was still alivesounded, I believed it. It had happened before, and it sure as shit was going to happen again, considering I was in a world full of people and creatures who could do magic and curses at a whim.
