Page 7 of Fractured
“It’s coming for all of us, Nilah. You must find the mirror,” he said. “You must?—”
Another scream, and then a body was thrown against the ground just a few feet away from us.
Hessa.
I stood up and turned around, heart in my throat. I wasn’t even sure that I was breathing, but I was certain that there was ice spreading underneath my skin.
The Seelie Queen was still standing, wiping blood from her nose, murder glistening in the gold of her eyes.
Yet when she took her hand down, she was smiling, her teeth bloody.
“Brother dearest,” she said, both hands lighting up—and I was ready. She was going to attack me and throw me back just like she had done with Hessa, and I was ready for it. I was going to fight, too—use that magic that I’d used in the mermaid cavern and with those werewolf men in Mysthaven, too.
Except…just before the queen attacked, I remembered that I was no longer bound to Lyall. I remembered that theheatthat had always been inside me without my even realizing it was no longer there. I remembered that Icouldn’tmake shit float on air anymore, and I couldn’t just throw people twice my size off me—I rememberedmuchtoo late.
All my hope crashed and burned, and my limbs were locked down—not just by fear, but by this ice that had spread all over me. I knew that I was going toexplodeany second now, either from this cold inside me or from that light that was burning brighter in the queen’s hands as she laughed.
But the night wasn’t done shocking me yet because neither happened.
Instead, I heard Helid choking for air the next moment, and I heard Hessa screaming, and I turned.
The same light that was in the queen’s hands was also burning on Helid’s neck. It was there, underneath his skin, just on his Adam’s apple, and it was easy to see that he was choking because of it.
Something came over me and suddenly my limbs were able to move again. I had no plan, no idea what the hell to expect at the end of this, and that was okay. I just ran forthe queen with my arms spread to the sides as she laughed, and in my mind, I screamed but I wasn’t sure if any voice left me.
Then there was darkness.
I was three feet away from the queen, about to slam onto her and take her to the ground, stop whatever the fuck she was doing to Helid—but I never got the chance. A wall of darkness rose up in front of me out of nowhere, and I tried to stop in time, but I had too much momentum. I slammed onto it face first, and my body recognized the cold of it immediately.
Rune was here.
I wasn’t entirely sure when my legs gave up, but when I came to again, I was on the ground on my side, my eyes half open.
Surreal.Rune was pulling at Hessa, who wasscreamingas she tried to run back to the body on the floor—the body of Helid.
Eyes closed. Chest still. As motionless as the stone blocks of the walls of this room.Dead.
Rune was speaking, saying something as he pulled Hessa back, and then she stopped screaming. The sound of it had been piercing my ears, it seemed, and when she stopped, I could think. I could try to sit up and look back to where the queen had been, but all I saw was that black wall of magic that Rune had undoubtedly put up. I could have sworn I saw light pulsating on its other side for a moment, but it could have also been my imagination.
Then Rune was right beside me, his arms underneath my legs and around my back, and he pulled me up before I could blink or think to tell him that I could walk on my own.
“Rune,” I said—his name like a prayer leaving my lips,and he was really there. Eyes dark and hair in front of them, teeth gritting as he looked at me.
“You’refreezing,” I thought he said—but again, all of this was blurry, and reality had the quality of a dream, so I wouldn’t bet that I’d heard him right. All I knew how to say was his name.
“Hold on. Just hold on,” Rune whispered, and these words made it to the very center of my chest, slipped into my bones. “We’re going to get out of here. Just hold on tight…”
Whatever kind of magic Rune possessed, when he spoke, I listened. I believed.
I let go.
three
The night skywas over me, the stars twinkling in it like they were laughing at me—shakingwith laughter—and I didn’t even know why. My heart was hammering in my chest, and by the time I blinked again, I remembered everything that had happened. I remembered that I’d passed out in Rune’s arms.
“Can you stand?”
Fuck, I wasstillin Rune’s arms.
