Page 63 of Fractured
“It’s her throne room,” said Vair, and he went ahead, walked slowly, silently. “The palace must have brought it up. It used to be on the ground floor.”
“Brought it up? What do you mean?—”
I stopped speaking myself when I followed him deeper into the room and saw outside—goddamn, we werehigh up.Like,veryhigh up, higher than we were in the queen’s bedroom—which, what the actual fuck?!
“How is this possible?”
“The Ice Palace,” was Vair’s answer.
“What the hell, Vair, what the hell…”
My voice trailed off as I went closer to the windows to see outside—and I did. My God, I sawallof the Frozen Court, I thought, and there was no wall around it, indeed. But there were gigantic ice shards that I could only see in some places through the hills and the buildings, ice shards that rose up from the ground like the fucking teeth of a gigantic animal.
More than that—I felt the cold air against my skin, the smell of snow and roses, and I finally saw the palace.
Pale stone blocks. Silver vines going up the walls. And a sea that stretched to the side and went on forever, merging with the dark sky above.
The Eternal Water. It was the sea that stretched behind each of the fae courts and to the edge of Verenthia.
Yes—the edge, because this realm was not a globe. Ithad a beginning and an end, and though I couldn’t see it from the darkness, I knew it was there. Because I could see the other kingdoms as well.
The Unseelie Court, and the Midnight one far on the left of the palace, but the windows must have been to the side of the throne room because I couldn’t see to the right where I knew the Seelie Court was.
Lights burned atop the courts,colorslike those pictures of the aurora borealis I’d seen back home. I held my breath as I watched, the land so vast it was like I was just realizing Verenthia was indeed a whole continent. It was massive, and it was right in front of my eyes—yet I couldn’t reach it. I was stuck in a palace that refused to let me go.
“This is where she sat.”
I turned, half surprised to find I wasn’t alone. The lynx was sitting on his hind legs right in front of the crystal platform.
Without thinking, I went closer.
“There’s no chair,” I said in wonder, though the dais itself was beautiful. So…new.Not a speck of dust was anywhere in this room, now that I thought about it. The floor was perfectly clean, too.
“There used to be,” Vair whispered. “This is where she belonged.” His voice—myvoice—grew stronger. “This was where she was meant to be.”
“Do we knowwhythat prophecy even existed?”
“The stars decide about the fate of the realm,” Vair said, and he sounded bitter just now. Almosthateful.
Which was the reason why I didn’t ask him to explain. Instead, I went closer to the dais, the thick crystal it was made of perfectly smooth on the outside but cut in a thousand different lines on the inside. I was tempted to think it was fake, made of plastic or something, but it wasn’t.
“This is it,” I said, slowly bringing the mirror, putting it over the dais. “I did the magic you wanted me to do, Vair. I found the mirror of the queen. I did everything.” I looked up at the ceiling, at the beautiful pieces of glass it was made of. “Now, will you let me go?”
No answer.
“You know what the queen did,” Vair whispered. “You mastered her magic and found her mirror.” He looked up at me. “But…there’s more.”
“No.” Shaking my head, I stepped back. “No way, Vair. I can’t takemore.I don’t want to do more—I want to get the fuck out of here, right now.”
“It’s not so simple,” the lynx said, head lowered, that look taking over his eyes—the one that meant he was trying to remember. He was trying to find a reason—but guess what? I couldn’t care less! Not anymore. I didn’t give a shit about this palace’s reasons—Idid not care!
“I’m getting out of this place tonight.” I stepped farther back, looked up at the ceiling.
“You can’t do that,” the lynx said, and that made me laugh.
“Watch me.”
The next ten minutes found me banging my fists on stone blocks, searching for doors thatI knewwere hidden here somewhere because there were always hidden doors wherever there were fae involved.
