Page 33 of Fractured
Myvoice.
It wasmyvoice that said those words, and when I turned around, my eyes finally locked on the blue ones of the white-furred creature.
I saw it lying there under the table.Hidingin the shadows—which wasn’t hard to do considering the amount of light that slipped through the colored glass of those windows.
My God, it was right there. I stopped, my hands still in fists, my legs shaking, my eyes refusing to blink. It was that same creature with the same eyes and fur, the same muzzle, the same body. It was the creature that had dragged me along the shore, away from that forest in the Mercove.
The very creature that had most likelylockedme in here somehow.
That my legs didn’t let go of me was a miracle—again, not just because I was alone with this animal, but because it had spoken inmyvoice.
My fucking voice.
“No.”
It just wasn’t possible. Whatever state I was in, whatever dream this was, it wasn’t real. This whole thing was a fabrication, an illusion—and I’d seen very well how powerful they could be, howrealthey could appear. That’s all this was—an illusion made by some sick, twisted fae. Possibly Lyall.
So, I ignored the creature completely and I ran again, to the doors, to the walls, slamming my fists anywhere I could, screaming,let me out! Let me out!
Nobody did.
Eventually, every bit of energy I’d had left in my body was drained. Eventually, I slid down the wall and sat on the ground again near one of the doors, though I couldn’t even tell you which. At that point everything had become a blur, but I did see the silhouette of the creature still sitting underneath that table now that I knew it was there. It just sat there and watched me, eyes blue and tail moving slightly.
Like it was real.
“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” I urged myself, squeezing my eyes shut, willing reality to change once more, as if I had any hope left. The thought that Rune was out there somewhere alone, hurt or bleeding, made me want to pull my own hair out of my skull.
This wasn’t supposed to happen, damn it. The soldiers weren’t supposed to find us. We were supposed to stick together no matter what.
We were supposed tosticktogether!
And now all I could do was pray that he was okay, that someone would come and tell me that he was on his way, that someone would wake me the fuck up.
Then…
“It’s useless to speak commands when your intentions are unclear. The palace knows.”
Again, that voice.
Again,myvoice.
Slowly my eyes opened and locked on the icy blue ones of the creature. He’d stood up, had come to the table’s side as he watched me, thick tail swooshing to the sides calmly. Every instinct in my body told me to run, even though he wasn’t big. Possibly Maera’s size when I first found her wolf locked in that cage, if that.
Even so, I had no doubt that this creature could tear me apart with those sharp teeth limb by limb, and there was nowhere to go now. Nowhere to run.
I was stuck in this stone room with it, and death was laughing in my face with each new step it took toward me.
eleven
“Stop.”
My voice was identical to the one this creature spoke in.
I saidstopand it did.
Too messed up.This whole thing was too fucking senseless, so I didn’t even try to figure anything out. Right now my goal was to survive, to run away, get out there where I could find Rune.Notget eaten by a creature who looked like a mythological animal and whospoke—with my own voice.
But it stopped.
