Page 4 of Fractured
“Keep running!”
My hand was in Hessa’s, and she gripped it so tightly her nails dug into my skin and drew blood. I didn’t feel the pain, though, as I tried to get her to let go. “Wait, wait—Rune! I have to wait for?—”
“No time! Rune will find us when it’s safe,” she insisted.
And I believed her.
Maybe because she’d put that knife in my hand, and maybe because Rune knew her and seemed to trust her, but I believed Hessa. So, despite my instincts screaming at me to get back to that feast, to Rune, I ran forward, down fancy hallways and under floating fae lights, inwhichever direction Hessa guided me. The cold underneath my skin no longer threatened to tear me to pieces, distracted by my body’s movement, but my heart still beat like a hammer in my chest.
Half of the places I ran through with Tessa were a blur that didn’t even register in my memories because the sight of that blood,myblood dripping down Rune’s hand still remained in front of my eyes every time I blinked. So fucking surreal—sopowerful,that image, almost like I’d seen it before c. Almost like the entire illusion had been a repetition. Deja-vu.
I wasn’t sure how long we ran, but I did notice when the lights began to dim, and when Hessa pulled me down a long and narrow set of stairs.
We were descending.
A floor, and two, and three.Where the hell am I?!
Magic, bright and golden, lit up the corridor we’d been running through, and in a blink before it took my vision away, I saw the guards.
Three of them had been in front of a barred door in the stone walls—not a single painting or lantern on them, only thick stone blocks.
Then Hessa let go of my hand and began to move too fast for me to actually see her limbs.
That golden light? Her magic. It flew lightning fast and slammed onto the soldiers, who didn’t even get the chance to reach for their swords before they were hit. Everything happened so fast. The tension in the air grew instantly, the magic thick against my tongue, and I froze in place as I watched Hessa with her golden gown kick the ass of three Seelie soldiers like she was taking a stroll on a Sunday morning.
The ease and the grace with which she moved—it reminded me of Rune. How he’d fought those masked men in the tunnel, had killed one of them; how he’d sparred with the moving trees in the dark; how he fought against the giant in the Crown’s Gauntlet. That’s exactly how Hessa moved, too, and just as she pushed the last guard against the bars at the end of the corridor with her bare foot on the back of his neck, she raised her hands in the air. They were glowing golden, and the light that exploded when she clapped them over her head felt like it shook the entire palace. I was pushed to the side, too, though I was at least fifteen feet away, and I fell against the wall in shock, mouth and eyes wide open.
Stars in my vision for a few dozen blinks, so the next time I saw the view in front of me, Hessa was pushing the limp body of the last guard against the wall, where she’d put the other two.
“Help me!” she shouted, and I moved as if my body was at her command.
I wasn’t thinking, though—wouldn’t knowwhatto think still if I tried. I just went and grabbed the guard by his leg and pulled him toward the other end of the wall with Hessa.
His chest was moving, rising and falling slowly but steadily. He wasn’t dead, and neither were the other two.
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me what the fuck we’re doing down here?” I said, my voice high-pitched, my nerves getting the best of me.
Hessa turned to the barred door—one I knew. One I’d seen before. One I’d gone through just a few days ago, side by side with Lyall.
Right after he came to pick me up where they’d imprisonedme in a cell because he claimed that his guards hadn’t known who I was.
Red hot rage ignited in my chest—or at least I expected it to behot. Instead, it felt like a layer of ice was spreading all over me again, just like before.
“I’m a little busy at the moment, Lady Nilah. Please step aside,” Hessa said breathlessly, pushing her hair away from her face as she went closer to the barred door. The one that I had barely seen as we walked through with Lyall because I’d been so terrified moments before. Terrified that Rune had died.
Hessa had the key to the ancient-looking brass-colored lock that chained the doors together.
“It was you,” I said as she turned it, then pulled the lock off, threw it on the ground. “You gave me the knife—it was you.” As if I still had any doubts left. As if I still suspected my own self.
Hessa looked at me only for a heartbeat, and then she pulled the door open.
“How will Rune know where to find us?” I asked when she walked inside and raised her hand, her palm glowing with the light that came out of her and floated over our heads.
Torches mounted on the walls. The heavy scent of hay hung in the air. I covered my mouth and nose against it because it brought back the memory of all I’d felt the last time that scent was in my nostrils. God, those feelings made a mess of my insides so fast I was going to throw up.
“He’ll know,” was all Hessa said as she slowly moved deeper into the wide corridor.
Cells on both sides, most doors open, most spaces empty. The corridor ended in a round area, this, too, full ofcells, these locked, used. All but one—the same cell whereI’dbeen locked in that night.
