Page 98 of Fractured Shadows

I wonder if it will break her once more.

The crowd becomes silent with tension as she takes two limping steps forward. I don’t move to help her. There were too many times when I begged for her help and she simply stared at me blankly as my father beat me until I couldn’t walk. There were too many times when I asked for her to love me, only to be met with a husk of a woman.

I see that knowledge flicker in her eyes, and she doesn’t step any closer, so she speaks from her position. “I always knew the Shadow Lands wasn’t big enough for you, Cora,” she says, and the crowd shifts. “You were always meant for more.”

I glance back at my men, at the monsters who woke me in more ways than one. Each of them gives me something I never expected to find—love. My mother may be able to express those words, but that doesn’t make her deserving of my forgiveness. It doesn’t make up for the years of abuse she allowed to happen.

“Yes,” I reply, “I was.”

I meet her eyes one last time before we continue through the Shadow Lands, leaving the woman incapable of being a good mother behind.

ChapterFifty

Eyes watch our journey along the streets as if we're a royal parade. I suppose we are, as the next would-be king as well as the past queen are among us. Most are too afraid to approach for fear of my monsters retaliating, but they are also too curious to run. Children come out to watch the procession, seeing it for what it is. Their dirty faces are aimed at me, on the human who walks in front of the monsters. I hold Grim’s and Zee’s hands, needing that connection so I don’t collapse in agony in front of all these people.

Hold it together just a little while longer, I tell myself.

The wall appears before us, the crisscrossing thorns just as I remember them. A hush falls over the crowd as we step toward it. I’m both numb and feel too much all at once as I stand in the same place where it all began. I’ve come full circle, and in the end, this will change everything.

Some of the humans behind me don’t deserve to live, but many of them deserve a chance they’d never had before. There were chains around our necks when the king was alive, but now those chains lie at our feet.

Because of me.

I gave them freedom, but they’ll have to earn it.

When the wall falls—and it will fall—they’ll have to learn to survive in a world filled with monsters, both creature and human. There will be no separation. There will only be one world, one realm.

I lift my hand, and my magic fills the courtyard around us, making those of the Shadow Lands “ooh” and “ahh” as if I’m some jester show. The temptation to send it into the crowd and have it chase after those who were like my father is strong, but we have a task to complete first. I’m reminded of that when I glance back at Emelyn, who appears so pristine in her death, so perfect.

She should have had the chance to unite the realms. She’d been so close, but greed had taken that away.

As my magic fills the air, it touches on the thorns before us, causing them to shift and move with the magic. I press it deeper until the thorns begin to slither back like snakes, pulling away until an opening wide enough for our procession is created. I glance back at the world I know one last time, at the shadows that used to coat my skin. Once I step through this wall for the second time, everything will change. No longer will I just be Cora Black, the hunt. I will be Cora the Fearless, Cora…the queen.

I saw the vision, so I know what this world has planned for me.

My mother’s eyes meet mine, and I look on, unflinching. I never wanted to be her, and I wasn’t, but because of her, Kai is dead. If only she’d been stronger, Kai might never have been taken by the king.

It’s an unfair notion, I know that. My mother couldn’t do anything, but I’m bitter and angry and filled with agony over losing the one person outside of my men I cared about.

Still, forgiveness is not in the cards. It will never be in the cards.

“Let’s go,” I say, my voice raspy from the pain in my heart.

Together, we step across the wall, over the thorns, and they begin to close up behind us. It’ll be the last time they do so.

We travel silently through the Dead Lands, Emelyn’s remaining magic reaching out and touching what it can. The trees somehow look more vibrant, and the monsters watch as we pass, not attacking. Even they know things are about to change and that the world will no longer be dead and rotting. Soon, each part of the realm will return to what it once was—beautiful, magical, and alive.

After some time, my legs refuse to carry me. Though the king’s castle looms in the distance, a beacon calling Emelyn home, I collapse with grief, but I never hit the ground.

Strong arms catch me and hold me tight, while hands caress my body, offering comfort where they can. I also hear whispered words that mean so much and yet nothing at all. They are here for me, and in their love, I feel a little piece of myself glue back together. I may have fractured when Kai died, but I will not remain that way. The shadows I carry won’t overtake the cracks in my soul. Instead, I’ll fill them with the gilded edges, sealing myself back together and becoming a work of art in my brokenness.

In that brokenness, I’ll love my monsters just as fiercely as they dare to love me.

One life. One journey. One family.

Just as it was always meant to be.

ChapterFifty-One

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