Page 82 of Fractured
Question—I just need one more question.And I had plenty of those, didn’t I?
“Why do I look like Queen Veyra of the Frozen Court?”
That was it.
That was all I needed to know, wasn’t it? Because even in the middle of all this chaos and all this fear, I really had come all this way to find out the truth. I had come here for answers, and if my fear wasn’t screaming in my ears right now,thiswould be what I’d want to know.
More importantly, if I actually ran without finding out what I came here to find out, I’d never forgive myself. And if I left here alive, I wasnotcoming back again.
The thought calmed me down a little bit, just so that the sound of my heartbeat didn’t steal away my hearing. Just so that the screaming in my head slowed down long enough for me to listen.
The faces of the creature that was being held down by a cloak made out of the ground continued to change. Women and men of all ages, faces of children, blonde and brunette, blue-eyed and dark skinned—it changed so fast I had no idea why it didn’t make me dizzy.
But the shape of the eyes and the mouth always remained the same.
The Chronicler spoke.
“She was not slain, not quite, not whole. She broke herself to save her soul. One half to silence, one to roam, and to find a stranger home.”
The wordswrotethemselves in my mind one by one as the mouth of those changing faces spoke. In those moments, the fear fell back, and all my other thoughts disappeared. My ears were meant for the Chronicler’s words only.
“She tore herself with her own hand—not to live nor to end. It was a slow and careful split, a seed of frost, too wild to quit.” The words registered, even if they made no sense to me yet. “The mirror did as it was told. It found a hold—a space unseen to bear the soul that once was queen.”
My eyes closed as something moved over my lips, something coming from my nostrils. Blood—warm and metallic, and it was in my mouth, too.
Fuck, my body didn’t feel like my own.
Yet the Chronicler continued.
“You were not chosen,but empty enough—a vessel shaped by pain and rough. The mirror did not seek a queen. It searched for a hollow in between,” it said, and when I opened my eyes again, I could hardly see those changing faces. It was like a world had climbed onto my back and was trying to push me down. It was like my strength was leaving me, sucked out of me by some invisible force, rendering me weaker with each sharp breath…
“Not fate. Not blood. Not royal claim—only enough space to hold the flame,” it continued in that strange voice, while the view in front of me tilted so violently. “That is you, noxavira.” Even my heart stopped beating. “You wearher face because she bled and gave you half of what was to be dead.”
Hard ground against my knees—have I fallen again?
I blinked a million times, yet the view didn’t clear. It became darker instead.
“P-please,” I thought I said, and fuck, I couldn’t even feel my body anymore. I was numb all over—so fucking numb. “Why? Why did…please…”
I fell.
Hard ground against my cheek. Cold, so it soothed me, and there was no more space left in me for fear.
No more space left in me for anything—except the Chronicler’s words.
“She did not flee a coward’s end nor cheat the threads the stars would send—no. She saw…” The Chronicler’s voice trailed off—or maybe it was just my imagination.
Definitelymy imagination because I heard my own voice speaking even though my jaws were locked so tightly.
Blood slipped between my lips. My eyes refused to obey, to open. My voice said, “She sawwhat?What did the queen see?”
Vair.
It must have been Vair.
“That is not for me to say.” The Chronicler’s voice was distant, as if I was already a world away, too weak to cling to consciousness. “The Seer of Shadows knows that day—knows the one who took her life, the only one who can name the why.”
Darkness pulled at me, harder than before. I could have sworn that Vair said something else—my own voice filled my ears. It was so heavy it pushed me down faster while the darkness pulled.
