Page 83 of Fractured
I was gone.
At first,I felt the cold, the roughness of the ground against my chest and my face.
I was being dragged.
Then I fell into the darkness again, for what could have been seconds or minutes at a time. There was only nothingness—and those words that had somehow written themselves in my mind in bright lights. They were there even when I wasn’t thinking about them at all—like I’d been memorizing them my whole life. Like I’ve lived by them forever. They stayed with me even when everything else faded away.
Eventually,I blinked my eyes and could see for longer than a few seconds at a time.
Eventually, the darkness let go of me fully and didn’t try to drag me down again.
I sat up, completely disoriented, and took in my surroundings, the tree that I could have sworn I’d beeninsideof now far in the distance, the others of the dead forest that had led us here just behind my back.
Vair sat to the side, looking at the giant tree, the breeze gently pushing his fur to the sides like it was playing with it. He stood so still, wouldn’t even blink those bright blue eyes.
And the dark cloud over us seemed to have only gotten thicker.
“Vair.”
His name left my lips in a whisper, and finally the lynx turned to look at me.
“Is it…did that really happen?” I touched my head, expecting to find I had no more hair left on me because I remembered how I’d pulled at it in the tree.
God, I remembered the pain, and I remembered that Ididn’t remember.Fucking hell, I’d lost my own name. I’d lost the memories of my family—of Rune.
I’d lost everything in there.
“It did. Now it’s done. I had to drag you away—the Chronicler didn’t want us in its territory anymore.” This he said calmly. Quietly. Like it was the most natural thing in the world to talk about.
“I forgot,” I whispered, eyes closed as I breathed in for a minute, touched my face as if to make sure it was there, touched my chest to feel my heartbeat. Because I could very well have died in there and I didn’t remember.
Becausethiswas possible here in Verenthia. It was possible to simplylosewho you were, all of your life, everything and everyone you ever cared about.
It was possible in this realm, and I had never before in my life wanted torunfrom anywhere as much I wanted to run from here in that moment. This place, this entire continent was a fucking nightmare. I didn’t want to be here anymore, not ever again.
If only my legs could hold my weight.
“Yes. That is the nature of Virlorn. It takes your memories, but it usually gives them back,” Vair said, and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull.
“Usually?Are you serious?!”
He blinked slowly at me, like he really couldn’t understand my panic. “The reading,” he said, ignoring me completely. “You remember the reading.”
“The…thereading?” The words that couldhave been made out of bright neon lights went off in my head all of a sudden, and a sharp pain sliced right through my skull.
“Yes, the reading of the Chronicler. Its words—you remember.”
Gritting my teeth, I held my breath until the pain faded away, and fuck, it was intense. It only lasted a split second, but it hurt like hell.
But the words remained, just as bright.
“Yes, I remember. Of course, I remember.”
“Good. Now we know.”
“Wait, wait—hold on a minute.” I looked at him, distracted from my horror for a moment. He’d really stood up on all fours like he was going to just take off somewhere. “I don’t know shit, Vair. I don’t knowanythingaboutanything at all—I forgot my own name in there.” I pointed at the tree in the distance but didn’t dare even look at it. “I forgot my family. I forgot Rune.”
The lynx turned his head to the side like he was confused. “You remember now, do you not?”
