Page 4 of Fractured (Royal Sins #3)

three

The night sky was over me, the stars twinkling in it like they were laughing at me— shaking with laughter—and I didn’t even know why. My heart was hammering in my chest, and by the time I blinked again, I remembered everything that had happened. I remembered that I’d passed out in Rune’s arms.

“Can you stand?”

Fuck, I was still in Rune’s arms.

“Yes,” I said, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to speak, but my voice came out. Dry and small and cracking, but it was there.

“Are you?—”

“Put me down, Rune,” I said, and I tried to push at his chest to convince him that I had strength in these limbs. I did. I could stand on my own, damn it. I didn’t need to be a burden, not now.

Not while we were running.

Rune let go, eyes wide and unblinking, his hands on my shoulders still as he looked at me and waited, like he was expecting me to collapse to the ground any second. By some miracle, I didn’t.

“I’m fine,” I told him, even if I wasn't entirely sure of the fact. “Where…where is…?”

Helid.

The memory of his face, his beard, his bewildered eyes— find the mirror.

My breath caught and my heart skipped beats, too many to count.

“Listen to me, Wildcat. We need to move. Can you move?”

Rune was there, hands on my shoulders, eyes full of concern locked on mine. He breathed as heavily as I did, and he didn’t look exactly afraid, but he was urging me to get my shit together fast.

I nodded. “I can. I can.” I’d move all night if I had to—just as long as we got the hell away from this place.

“We—”

A sharp whistle cut through the air, and we both whipped our heads to the side to see where it came from.

Hessa, who’d discarded her white dress and now wore brown leggings and a white shirt.

Hessa, who was standing in front of these huge dark trees.

Where the hell are we ?

“Time’s running out!” she shouted.

She was no longer crying.

“Let’s go,” Rune said, and with my hand in his, he ran toward Hessa.

My legs followed. I searched my surroundings, trying to see where we were, and I saw the golden palace of the Seelie Court just beyond these smaller buildings I could have sworn we were where the help lived that I’d passed once in search for Rune’ s forge.

No queen. No soldiers. No Lyall.

So much didn’t make sense to me right now, yet I was getting calmer by the minute because Rune was with me. My hand was in his and we were together, and whatever the fuck just happened in that cursed place, it was over. We were running away.

Then there was Hessa.

Her eyes were glossy even though her cheeks were dry. There was blood on her skin, over cuts that had long healed, and her hair was a mess, but she looked focused. She looked…loaded.

And when we were close enough, she turned around and slipped into the tree line.

Silence around us. I strained my ears as we went through the dense forest, but I couldn’t even pick up the sound of animals or leaves rustling, like I did once. Like I did when I was with Maera.

I could have sworn that that was a lifetime ago. I could have sworn that I was not the same person tonight.

A carriage surrounded by trees on a gravel path that barely fit the large wooden wheels.

A single white horse was attached to it.

Hessa was looking at Rune, her voice unwavering, her eyes unblinking. “Will you take the reins?”

“I will.” Rune pulled me toward the narrow door of the carriage, opened it. “Get in, both of you—and do not come out until I say so.”

Even though I wanted nothing more than to stick by his side, to take the reins of the horse together with him, I didn’t argue.

This was not the time to insist—only time to get the hell out of here before they caught us.

It was a damn miracle we were outside the palace in the first place, so when Hessa got into the tiny carriage, I followed.

But before I climbed in, I grabbed Rune’s face in my hands and gave him a kiss.

“For good luck,” I whispered.

Rune kissed me back. I felt his desperation in the way he held the back of my head for a moment too long. “Go.”

I hopped into the carriage and he closed the door behind me.

A moment later, the horse neighed and took us forward.

Shadows as thick as ink spread all around the wooden walls of the carriage, and some slipped through the cracks—Rune locking us in, possibly an illusion. Then a small ball of silvery blue light slipped in through the wall at his back, and it changed shape as it came to me, turned into my bird.

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood just to keep from crying out. That bird was my friend. My hope.

It was a promise that Rune was close and I was safe.

The reminder that the seal was off him was a relief at first, but then I remembered that he couldn’t access his shadows at all at that feast. I remembered it like it was happening right in front of my eyes. Rune hadn’t been able to use his magic, which meant…

My heart took a pause and I turned to Hessa.

The carriage was small, with nothing but a piece of wood attached to the back wall of it. No windows, and the only light was coming from the little bird that was flying slowly over my head in a circle now.

“It was you.”

She had created the illusion of me dying in that hall, hadn’t she? Because Rune couldn’t have. Lyall ordered him, and because of that fucking water we’d stuck our fingers in when we first arrived, Rune couldn’t disobey.

Hessa looked at me passively, her eyes dark, off .

“You created the illusion of me dying. You…you fooled Lyall.” And everyone else in that room.

Just not the queen.

Hessa said nothing, not a single word. She just turned her head and looked at the empty wall again, elbows over her knees, two knives with curved daggers in her fists.

And she didn’t make a sound until the wheels of the carriage stopped turning.

A mountain was in front of us. Had it been any smaller, I’d have called it a hill.

Smooth grey rocks piled on top of one another as if on purpose.

Nothing about it that caught my eye or that seemed dangerous in any way, yet my senses were on high alert and my heart hammered with fear because of the scent.

The salty scent in the air that I recognized as if from a dream.

We’d traveled for at least a couple of hours—and fast. Rune hadn’t stopped for a second, and I had no clue how he’d taken us out of the Seelie Court, but right now I didn’t care.

Because we were in the Mercove, and there was a sea near us. A sea crawling with mermaids who loved mortal flesh and who could manipulate water the way Rune manipulated shadows.

Luckily, I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see water anywhere around us, even if I could smell it, could feel it in the air against my skin. I didn’t need to ask Rune even if Hessa hadn’t told us to be very quiet when we got off the carriage.

I turned to look at the horse quietly munching on the grass that grew near the tall trees full of colorful leaves.

I couldn’t even hear him moving even though we were barely ten feet apart.

My heart beat in my ears, blocking out every other sound, but I still saw Hessa when she moved her lips as she chanted.

She’d leaned into a particularly big piece of rock on the side of the mountain, and she’d pressed both hands against the rough surface.

They were glowing faintly with golden light as she spoke whatever words she needed to speak—and then the rock moved.

It groaned as it slid to the side, and it was even bigger than I first realized, possibly reaching up to my shoulders. The hole it revealed was dark, darker than Rune’s shadows, but even so, Hessa crouched over and slipped inside without a word of warning.

Rune looked at me, tightened his grip around my hand, and raised his other one. My bird took shape right over his palm, then flew ahead.

I would never believe that this man couldn’t see into my mind and didn’t know exactly what I was thinking at any given time. He always knew.

We followed Hessa into the mountain, the bird casting blueish light on the rocky ground, and a new sense of deja vu hit me again. For a moment, I was back to that night in Blackwater with Raja, just before we entered the tunnel under the old willow tree.

God, if I could turn back time and just stop us from leaving Blackwater altogether. I wished with all my heart that I knew then what I did now. I would tell Rune that we were never going to set foot in the Seelie Court, and we would go back to the Neutral Lands.

Now, Lyall would still be asleep, if not dead. Helid would still be alive. And I could be home with my family— with Rune by my side.

If only I knew …

But things were as they were, and now we were walking under a mountain, following a bird made out of light, and Hessa, who might have just saved my life, and who might be our friend or our enemy—you could never be too sure with the fae.

They could save your life, only to turn around and try to kill you within the same day.

I believed it now, after all I’d witnessed. I believed it with all my heart.

And then there was light.

It came from flames lighting up the tips of these large torches that were put against the rocky walls of the tunnel.

The ceiling was low enough that I could touch it if I raised my hand, but I didn’t.

I didn’t think about what it would be like if the entire fucking mountain collapsed on our heads, either—I just focused on the light and Hessa’s shadow that danced on the walls as if it had a mind of its own, following the movement of the flames.

But when I heard the voice, my limbs froze and I stopped walking, and Rune stopped with me.

“Hessa, you made it.”

A woman.

“Where…where is he?”

Hessa lowered her head, covered her face with both hands. We saw the face of the woman who was standing between two of those large torches. Golden hair and golden eyes, a look on her face like she’d just seen a ghost when she put her hand over Hessa’s head.

Then her eyes locked on mine.

I didn’t know this woman, had never seen her before, I was sure of it—yet at the same time I had the feeling that we’d met—or at the very least, she knew exactly who I was and where I came from.

Rune’s fingers closed around my hand once more. There were more people in there, beyond the rocks at the end of this tunnel that we still couldn’t see—until two of them, a man and a woman, both Seelie, came forth and took Hessa by the hands. Guided her beyond the corner.

Only the woman remained in front of us with her chin raised and her eyes glossy with unshed tears.

“Welcome, Nilah Dune.” Her voice echoed in the low ceiling—and a million more times in my head. “And you, Rune Kalygorn. Come inside.”

With that, she turned around and walked back where she’d come from, leaving Rune and me—and the bird—all alone in the tunnel.

“Do you know her?” I whispered, not daring to look away from the end of the tunnel and that dancing orange light. Waiting for someone else to pop up in front of us—someone like Lyall.

“I do. Merenith of the Yuves, presumed dead about two years ago.” Rune’s voice had a ring to it that wasn’t usual. Like…he, too, was still drowning in shock while pretending he wasn’t.

Presumed dead meant Lyall and the Seelie Queen had no idea this woman was here, so… “Then let’s go.”

Rune stopped me for a second when I made to drag him along. The bird flew right over his head as if he wanted me to see all of him.

I did.

My heart squeezed. “Whatever happens in there, we’re going to be safe,” he whispered.

“Said the guy who stabbed me in the chest an hour ago,” I said with a small smile that I didn’t even have to force out of me. I saw him, and I wanted to smile despite the situation we were in .

Rune shook his head, leaned in and kissed my forehead. “ Never, ” he said. “I’ll set this whole realm on fire first.”

I absolutely believed him because I’d do the same.

“Let’s see what these people can tell us, okay?” Because things had gone from bad to worse and I had yet to even try to imagine what came next.

One thing was for certain, though, as much as I hated to admit it. I wasn’t going to see my family anytime soon.