Page 70 of Fractured
Suddenly, all I could think about was that cave with those people from the Broken Crown who’d had to fight for their lives because Lyall was coming afterme.
What if Vair was right? What if I kept hidden until I found the truth—thewholetruth—first, and put an end to all this madness?
“But you are smart enough to make the right decision,” the lynx whispered. “Then we can find whoever you want.”
I couldn’t believe it.
Holy fuck, despite every voice in my head and every instinct screaming at me for Rune, I could feel myselfnodding.I could feel myself agreeing with Vair, believing he was right.
Because he was. My God,he was.If Rune wasn’t with me, he wouldn’t be in danger, would he? Lyall wantedme,and chances were he would know it the moment I found Rune. He was a prince, soon to be king, and that came with power. Even more power now that he wasn’t pretending to be dead.
And if I stayed away, if I figured this out first, there would be no need to put Rune in danger. Because let’s face it—I couldn’t just leave Verenthia like this, without knowing the truth of my veryexistence.
“The truth first,” Vair told me. “Then you can make your choice.”
With that, he stood up and walked down the remaining stairs and to the door, then turned to look at me, waiting.
Tears in my eyes but I stood up. My heart was in a million pieces, but I also knew that this was the right decision. I wasn’t going to go after Rune right away, and that was okay. Tomorrow was just a few hours away, and by this time the next night I would be with him for sure.
No time to waste.
I forced my body to move. I walked down the stairs as the tears silently slipped from my eyes, and I pushed the wooden door open with all my strength. Like that, dressed in the dead queen’s clothes, wearing the dead queen’s face, I walked out of her palace, and it didn’t stop me.
Outside.
I had been trying to get outside of that palace for so long now that I was constantly expecting my surroundingsto change, for a wall to appear in front of me, to lock me in again.
It didn’t.
I really was free.
Vair stayed beside me every step of the way. We must have come out a side door, the only one on the stone wall at the end of those stairs, and we were definitely in a part of the palace that people didn’t frequent.
Or maybe it was just late.
I had no clue if it was past midnight yet or not, but not a soul was in sight as we slipped out the door and down this pathway surrounded by trees that looked more dead than alive, the colorful leaves barely hanging onto the thin branches.
The air was cold and the night dark, no moon in sight, but as we walked down the narrow path, Vair’s silvery white fur was almost luminous. We didn’t see anything at all until we were on the other side of the trees, and I was terrified, yes, but I also had a calm about me that didn’t let my heartbeat speed up.
Then I looked back where we’d come from.
It was the same palace made of pale, almost whitestone blocks, as the one inside the music box. The five pointy towers and the many windows—my God, it was the same palace. This one was big,huge,so much bigger than I would have thought, possibly even bigger than the Queen’s Palace in the Seelie Court, and I couldn’t even tell which part of it I’d been in because all of it looked the same to me from out here.
“Keep your eyes ahead,” Vair told me because I almost fell a dozen times turning to look back. And he was right—it was no longer important, no matter how hauntingtheentire building looked against the dark sky. And to know that at least a part of it could actually close doors and make others appear on the walls whenever it pleased?
Yeah, safe to say I wasnotcoming back to this place anytime soon.
“You know the way, right?” I asked.
“I do.”
I pulled the fabric of the cloak closer over my chest. It was thick and I wasn’t cold—my blood was rushing—but I felt better knowing nobody could really see me through it.
Not that there was anybody to hide from, to be honest, but still.
I could just make out two fae in the distance, both men, both wearing dark clothing, walking together, holding some kind of a box between them. They were far away, but I could make out the color of their hair just fine—a blond much lighter than the golden hair of the Seelie fae. A blond identical to mine.
Whether they saw us or not, I wasn’t sure, but they didn’t look at us, didn’t approach us, didn’t seem curious at all, which was a relief.
