Page 61 of Fractured
I swear, the taste of it waselectric.It shocked my system all the way, and I bit slowly, but every time the juices filled my mouth, I was a step farther from the palace. The entire fucking realm. My own self.
The magic rose inside me.
It was different this time. It was like before—likeice, not water. It layered over every one of my organs, covered them in what I’d always thought was frost, but it wasn’t. It was just raw energy, and I felt it humming in my very veins. Ithurtas it spread over my chest and down my arms, but only for a second. It hurt, and then the ice numbed me over, and I was detached, floating away from my own body, so I saw the whole thing from…outside.
The list ofstrangest things everkept growing, but so did the cold.
And then I swallowed the berry.
Icy flames ignited in my stomach. If I’d been aware of my own body, I’d have been terrified because this was exactly what it felt like that day in the forest. It felt like the touch of death wrapped around my neck.
Yet I still saw the whole thing as if I really wasn’t in my own skin. Even though there was only darkness in front of my eyes, I still saw the shimmer clinging to my fingers, just like the light had done.
Then the music stopped.
Suddenly I wassucked intothe real world. Suddenly, Iheardthe footsteps and I felt someone stepping behind me. Grabbing the blindfold. Pulling it down around my neck.
Vair with his teeth.
Vair with his wide blue eyes, surprised, almostsmilingas he looked at my hand that I’d raised in front of me.
So, I looked at it, too.
Magic covered the tips of my fingers, different from before. This was what I’d seen in that forest. This was frostfire, and I finally understood exactly what Vair had been trying to explain to me.
It wasn’t a part of me at all—this was like a living being of its own. Or at least an energy that was aware, that wascooperatingwith me, not under my control. It didn’t obey—it listened, and itchoseto do my bidding.
Such a strange, strange thing to acknowledge.
I heard and saw nothing but it, and my own need echoing inside me right where the cold had been. My need to know the one thing I’d been running from since the day I was told that magic and humans could not mix.
Who am I?
“Nilah, look.”
I blinked, and the world came into view again. My hand, gloved, and the bedroom of a dead queen, her beautiful desk—and the energy that shimmered under the dying light of the sun as it traveled toward it. Slowly at first, then all at once.
The sound of a click filled the room when the shimmerfellover the desk, like rain, or snow that disappeared when it touched the glass tabletop.
The drawer near the left corner slid open just a tiny bit.
I breathed for what felt like the first time in hours.
“You did it,” said my own voice comingfrom Vair, together with the one coming from my thoughts in my head.I did it.
Holy fuck, Ididit.
Speaking was out of the question. I stood up on shaking legs, the music box silent, the flames dancing on the torches still dimmed, even though the sun had already disappeared beyond the horizon. It was like they were watching, too, and had forgotten to turn up the light as they waited. Like the palace itself was surprised that it had indeed worked.
By God, it had actually worked. The small drawer slid open all the way when I pulled it with a shaking hand.
A book was inside, the dark grey cover thick and decorated with a thousand gemstones. Diamonds, some clear, some like they were infused with ink.Dark diamondsfrom the Midnight Court.
Shivers broke on every inch of my skin when I pulled the book out.
The mirror was right there.
nineteen
