Page 98 of Fractured
“I’m here for the truth,” I whispered, looking down at Vair, who was looking at me. He came closer until his furtouched the edge of my cloak, and he sat on his hind legs, eyes locked on mine as if he was trying to give me courage.
“Go on,” he told me—and for whatever reason, it worked.
“I’m here because I want to know, once and for all, why I exist.” The words weighed heavy on my shoulders. “I was never meant to be…this.” Becauselook at me—a human being with magic to use and a face that belonged to a queen, wearing her clothes and holding her mirror. “I was never meant to be this person, and I don’t knowwhyI am her, and I-I-I need to know who killed the Ice Queen.”
Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes, both from pain and anger, though I hadn’t meant to cry. This woman here was a stranger, and not only that but she worked for the Midnight King. Themadfucking king who banished his own son and left him to die. Imagine what he would do tomeif he found me sneaking around here. Ifshetold him I was here.
“I see,” the seer said, folding her hands in front of her, and the look in her eyes wassoftjust now. Like she was actually feeling sorry for me. “You’ve come a long way, Nilah Dune. Nerith is far from us—and with very good reason.”
Her words made me pause. “Wait, what? What does that mean?”Very good reason?
“That is not for me to say, nor is this the time to say it. I feel your fear, young one. You may release it. It makes my shadows uneasy.” And she raised a hand toward the walls like I was meant toseeher uneasy shadows.
And…I did.
Holy shit, I looked and the shadows weremoving,just like Rune’s. Thick tendrils slithering up and down,fasterlike they really were uneasy, and it was stranger than flying pieces of paper any day of the week.
“I feel fear because of you,” I said, and I might kick myself in the face for this later, but she gave me the impression that she would only accept a no-bullshit approach to things. “I fear because you work for the Midnight King, and I?—”
“I do not work for the Midnight King,” said the seer, turning her head to the side as if she were curious to see my reaction at her words. I didn’t give her one. “I serve no one but Verenthia. You are safe here tonight.”
Just like that, she said the words and I believed them.
Did seers lie? Because I was willing to bet a limb that she didn’t. Just the way she spoke and carried herself and looked.
I am safe here—at least for tonight.
I let go of a deep breath, and with it, I tried to release as much of this tension keeping my chest tight as I could. Whether it worked to the seer’s liking or not, I wasn’t sure, but I tried.
And then she said, “I cannot tell you who killed the Ice Queen of the Frozen Court, Nilah.”
It was like she pulled the ground from under my feet, and suddenly I was falling. “What?”
The seer moved again, came closer, wrapped her fingers around my wrist while I watched, then pulled up my hand that held the mirror.
“But with this, I can show you.”
There went my mind again, turning completely blank within a second.
“If I may,” the seer said, opening her hand now, asking me for the mirror. I put it in her palm without actually thinking—and she gasped when it touched her skin. Shegasped, and because she was right in front of me, I saw her pupils dilate all the way before she closed her eyes. I even saw goose bumps rise on the flesh of her arm.
I moved back on instinct, looked down at Vair, terrified that I’d made a mistake by giving her that mirror. Because what if she was full of shit? What if she never meant to help me? What if the Midnight King was hiding in those shadows, waiting for the right moment to come out?What if, what if, what if…
“Wait,” Vair whispered, as if he could tell that I was about to move farther back, toward the doors—the doors that weregone.My God, the doors through which we’d come were not only closed, but they were gone, covered in these dancing tendrils of shadows, and I knew for a fact that I’d never be able to find them if I tried. I’d never be able to get out of here on my own.
Fuck!
I looked at Raja, too, and she was indeed terrified, her face pale, her eyes wide as she looked at the seer—but she didn’t look alarmed in a way that said she wanted torun.
Then the whispering began.
It was in Veren so I had no idea what the hell she was saying, but the seer had begun to whisper with her eyes closed, the mirror’s handle tightly in her fist, her other hand open in front of the broken glass. Her eyes were half closed, and I was terrified to look at her face because her pupils kept disappearing as she chanted, and fuck if I wasn’t going have nightmares about this for years to come—ifI survived whatever the hell this was.
I expected the worst. I expected her to explode or push me back or for those shadows to crawl across the marble floor and wrap around me like fucking ropes. Yet somehow my magic remained contained. Somehow, the ice didn’tspread in my veins, and my hands weren’t cold at all. It was almost like it had been…deactivated.
And the shadows did move.
I watched with my mouth wide open as they tore themselves from the walls, only a handful of tendrils from the sides. They did crawl like living beings across the floor. This time, Vair and Raja moved back with me, but the shadows didn’t care about us. They moved toward the seer, stopped just below where she held the mirror, then spiraled around one another like fucking ribbons and rose up and up until they touched her hand, and covered the mirror completely.
