Page 48 of Fractured
Far below, I saw the figures moving, though I could only make out those who were closest to the palace clearly. There seemed to be no outer wall of it here, though I wasn’t entirely sure how the palace looked from the outside. But where there had been a large wall snaking around the Queen’s Palace in the Seelie Court, there was none here, merely what I assumed was a fence.
A woman with a scarf that trailed behind her like smoke. Children running, chasing something that shimmered as it skipped over the snow. Horses, some with carriages, some without, moving in all directions. Guards wearing silver armor near that fence in the distance beyond rooftops of smaller buildings and a narrow river stream, and gardens—some dark, some colorful, some covered in snow.
I could see everything, but no one looked up at me. Like the world didn’t know I was here.
Or maybe…like nobody knew this palace even existed.
I pressed my hand to the glass of the window, half expecting it to break at my touch, but it didn’t. The window stayed cold and unyielding—just like everything else in this place.
“The court is starved of magic. Can you see it?”
This time, Iwasstartled, but not because of my own voice. Because Vair had put his front paws on the edge of the wall near the window and had stretched his neck to look outside. Like that, he reached up to my waist.
“I…no,” I breathed. “No, I don’t. What do you mean,starvedof magic? It looks fine to me.” More than that—this place, what I could see of it, was absolutely breathtaking—and it went on forever.
Beyond the buildings, big and small, the land unfolded in soft, endless layers. Sweeping fields blanketed in that same snow, dark blue rivers moving throughout the landscape like living things, and the one nearest to us, on the inside of that fence, steamed faintly as if the water ran warm.
Bridges arched over them everywhere and they looked like ribbons from the distance. And beyond it all, mountains loomed in silence, not sharp like those of the Mercove, but hunched, their snow-covered peaks brushed with gold from the still rising sun.
Yes—breathtakingwas definitely the right word. So much more magical than anything Verenthia had showed me until now.
“The queen is dead. The court has no ruler. The magic is fading,” said Vair, and this time I turned to look at him.
“Doesn’t the Midnight King rule here now?” I’d been under the impression that he took over the Frozen Court.
“He is not the rightful heir to the Frozen throne. He tries, and he does command the queen’s army, but he is no ruler here,” Vair said, and I could have sworn that he sounded bitter as hell about it, too.
“He’s a bad man.” Which wouldn’t surprise anyone considering what he did to his own son.
“He’s not only a bad man,” the lynx said. “He’s aweakman, and those are the most dangerous kinds of creatures, my queen used to say.”
“The queen knew him well, I imagine.” If she gave him her army, then went to feasts in his kingdom, she must have.
“She did. He has been obsessed with her for decades. A man who doesn’t know the meaning ofempathyclaims to be in love—she despised him more for it.”
If the lynx had slapped me across the face with his fucking paw, I’d have been less shocked.
“Are you serious? He wasin lovewith the queen?” Because I’d neverbefore heard of it. Never could I have even imagined it.
“Heclaimedto be,” said the lynx, those strange eyes closing for a moment, before he pushed himself off the wall and onto the floor, shaking his head, his entire body like he was trying to get rid of a bad memory. “I don’t remember much, but he is as cunning as he is cruel.”
I thought about it for a second. “Vair, how did she do it?” I whispered. “How did the queen cheat her fate?”
Silence for a good long moment.
“I don’t know.” Which was exactly what I’d expected, but somehow, I was still disappointed.
“That’s okay,” I said, more to myself than him. “We willfigure it out. We know that she did it; otherwise, this place wouldn’t have let me out of that room at all. She did it, and now we only have to figure out how.”
“It’s impossible to stop a prophecy,” Vair said, looking up at me with those wide eyes, terrified. “They are the only parts of the future that Reme will not allow to be changed—it is why seers can see them. It’s what the wordprophecymeans in Veren—the unchangeable future.”
“So, think about it, Vair.” I fell on my knees in front of him, sat on my legs. “Try to remember. You know what she did, and why she did it. You said you were the queen’s companion—youmustknow.” And wouldn’t it be soeasyto just have him remember exactly why I was here and what this palace wanted me to figure out, so that I could be out there and on my way to Rune already?
“I have,” the lynx said. “I’ve been trying for almost two decades. The memories aren’t there anymore. They’re…gone.”
“Gone, how? Memories don’t just disappear.”
“They do, when you die,” he said.
