Page 53 of Fractured
Instead, he nodded his head and licked his lips and said, “Mortals cannot possess magic in any butoneform—when they have been shaped into vessels by other magic first.”
“I—wait, what?” What the hell? “What aboutI’m sorry about everything you had to go through, Nilah?What about that part?”
He didn’t give a shit.
“So, it helps to understand that first,” he simply continued.
“Understand what, you insensible little…lynx? That I’m avessel?!”
A nod—how strange was it to see an animal nod, by the way. “Correct.”
I could only shake my head for a good moment. “Wow. You’re an asshole.”
“I am right.” He came and sat closer to me. “You are a vessel, and that is why the fae magic of the life-bond didn’t kill you, and that is why the moon magic of werewolves didn’t kill you, either. It activated you instead.”
“Activated you—you’re talking to me like I’m a damn robot.” Like I had a fucking button to be activated by.
“I don’t know what that is, only whatyouare.”
“Vair, I swear to God?—”
“NowIspeak, Nilah. I tell you the truth of the magic that lingers underneath your skin. The same magic that only a few of the Ice fae possess. The magic that the Ice Queen had in abundance.”
There went my anger, turning into terror little by little.
“You don’t know that,” I whispered. “You don’t know that it’s the same thing. I’m not Ice fae—you said it yourself. I’m a…avessel.” And I’d rather bethatthan try to come to terms with the idea that I was somehow fae.
How absurd. How fucking ridiculous—how in the fuck did I get here again?
Oh, right. A little boy saved my life when I was five years old.
But Vair had apparently decided that whatever I said during this conversation was going to be ignored by him entirely, so he simply continued.
“Frostfire is not like other kinds of magic. It is one of the ancient magics that was born from the union of opposites. History tells us that it was first wielded by the fae who united ice and fire, and it has evolved since then. It does not destroy for destruction’s sake—it strips falsehoods andstrips everything it touches down to its essence. Frees it from corruption—when it is wielded right,” he said, and now you couldn’t pay me to interrupt him.
I wanted to hear everything he was going to say to me because I wasfinallygetting a straightforward answer on one thing in this fucking realm.
“Frostfire responds best to truth seekers. It does not obey rage and it does not accept control—it demands respect,” Vair said. “Where most magic bends the world to the user’s will, frostfire does the opposite: it bends its user until they are true enough to use it.”
Words I’d heard before came back to me slowly. “The final stage of magic.” That’s what Maera had called it.
“In a way,” Vair said.
“But what does it actually do? Like what…what does it do?!” I didn’t even know how to ask properly—that’s how ill-equipped to even have this conversation I was.
“Everything all magic does—and it also strips spells and illusions down. It burns through magical lies and cleanses corruption. Curse magic, spell rot, magic residue—it can all be cleansed by frostfire from a truthful wielder.”
I nodded—this I actually understood. “And what did it do to that forest then? If you’re so sure that was frostfire, why did it make that forest like that? So…silent.”
“That was unguided frostfire,” Vair said without hesitation. “It merely showed what the land was before—part of the Mercove sea. Underwater.”
“Holy shit, Vair…” How in the world did that make sense? The color that had clung to everything, like some strange kind of hail or snow—ordrops of water. The way the leaves had moved like they were waving—or like they were underwater. The way the entire forest had been so still—no birds and no animals and no insects.
“Magic shifts with time, and so does Verenthia. Centuries ago, all of the Mercove was underwater. Your magic merely took that piece of land back in time, for a while,” the lynx said, and I kept shaking my head at myself.No way. Just no way.
“And the people that were there will be all right, right? You said so—you said?—”
“Yes.” My mouth clamped shut. “Your frostfire didn’t hurt them.”
