Page 58 of Fractured
And Vair told me to focus on that, to focus on the music rather than my thoughts. On my feelings, not my common sense.Disregard it,he said. Disregard my own mind in favor of what I felt.
I had memories, though—memories of Rune that made the whole thing a bit easier. He told me once that whateverI came across in Verenthia, I took its power when I reminded myself that it wasnormal.This was all normal for this place, that it had been here long before me, and it would be here long after I was gone.
Normal. This was all part of the process.
It was then that I finally began to feel the cold underneath my skin grow in intensity. Not like it had before, both in the jail cell while Hessa fought the Seelie Queen and in the forest in the Mercove. It had been hard then,sharp,uncontrollable, but now it was just…heavy.
And it took its time.
“Whyice?” I asked, eyes closed still, my hands covered in those gloves that fit me like they were made for me. “Why is it called ice magic?” It did feel like it was freezing all of my insides when it came, but my skin always remained warm. Normal.
“It’s calledice magicbecause of what ice is,” Vair told me. “Ice captures and preserves. Silences. Can keep things still even while time moves forward. Ice is the best keeper of secrets, too. It’s control, restraint—and it’s absolute.” When he spoke like this, and now together with the music in the background—fuck, I could listen to him for days. “That’s the nature of ice magic. It doesn’t destroy and make, but rather captures and reshapes reality as we see it.”
The only explanation I’d ever had of the magic of the Ice fae was what Rune had told me in that guest haven we’d slept in, on our way to Lyall. God, it had been just weeks, but it felt like years ago.
“How does one manipulate twilight?” I wondered because that’s what Rune said before—the fae of the Frozen Court could manipulate twilight, ice, and water. They were also the best hunters in the realm.
“One doesn’t manipulate twilight the way a Midnightfae does shadows. An Ice fae’s magic is strongest at twilight, that is all,” Vair explained.
“And water? Can you manipulate water, too—like the mermaids did?”
“Ice fae do have elemental power over water. Or they used to, before.” He lowered his head.
“Before what?”
“Just before,” was his answer, and the music stopped. It had slowed down without my even realizing it. “Go ahead. Spin it. Let’s continue.”
So, we did.
It helped to understand how this worked, even though I was still full of unanswered questions. And I was trying to push them away at first, to keep my mind clearer, but that pressure that the cold magic inside me had been building seemed to be easing.
That’s why I decided to speak again just a few minutes later—while keeping my hands in front of me and trying to summon that light.
“Did she have family, the Ice Queen? Did she have a husband or kids, or…or a sister?” I asked Vair as the music continued, my eyes half-closed and my mind half-focused on the sensation of the magic underneath my skin.
“No. She was alone,” said Vair.
Shivers ran down my arms. “There must be someone. A…a cousin. A friend. A lover.”
Vair was silent for the longest moment, never blinking his eyes. “I was her friend once,” he said in a whisper I barely caught. “Useless friend. I didn’t understand until it was too late.”
“Don’t say that, Vair,” I said because it was clear to see that he felt guilty.
A lynx who felt guilty about being a bad friend.
“It’s the truth,” he insisted—and what the hell did I know about the relationship they had?
“What didn’t you understand?”
“Why,” Vair said.
“Why, what?”
“Why she did what she did.”
I shook my head. “Why she cheated her fate, you mean.” He nodded. “But you don’t know how she did it.” I mentioned it again just in case it came back to him—like the mirror.
“I don’t remember,” Vair said.
