Page 50 of Fractured (Royal Sins #3)

“The shadows—they are weaker. Lighter,” Raja answered.

“My magic used to flow like water in this land, and now it clings to it like oil.” She flinched.

Actually flinched. “The trees that border the other roads that lead to Blackwater used to be sharp. Healthy. When I left, their bark gleamed like wet ink, but now? Their limbs are twisted. They are…spent. Dry.”

“And the lights,” Rune said. “The lights are dimmer. I remember how bright they used to be. ”

I felt Vair’s eyes on the side of my face before I turned to look at him. I knew exactly what he was thinking because I was thinking it, too.

“Something’s wrong, something’s wrong—that pig has destroyed this kingdom,” Raja chanted under her breath.

And Vair said, “Are you going to tell them that ?”

Shivers rushed down my spine. “There was rot on the crystals in the Frozen Court,” I whispered, as if he was in charge of my mouth now, too, not just my voice.

I knew he wanted me to speak about it, and I did.

It felt like I had to. “There were parts of the gardens in the Ice Palace that were completely dead, while others near them were perfectly intact. I don’t know what that means, but…

” I held Vair’s eyes. “Vair thought it didn’t used to be like that, either. ”

“No, it did not,” the lynx said.

For a moment, we all fell silent, each going over our own thoughts.

“The warmth, too,” Raja whispered. “It is far too warm for this time of year, especially at midnight. I wasn’t stronger as I should have been. I tested myself.”

“The kingdom is falling apart,” Rune repeated, but he said it like he’d just come to the realization, and it shocked him.

“Why? Can we ask someone? Maybe the seer?” I wondered because she seemed to know a whole lot.

But Raja shook her head. “She told us everything she was going to tell us. We are on our own.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Then we leave.” All three of them turned to look at me. “There is no need for any of us to be here anymore—we will leave the Midnight Court.” And whatever the hell was happening to it, we could just deal with it when we were far, far away .

“Lyall lied,” Raja said instead and turned to Rune. “We all know why.”

“To take me to my father. To have me killed,” Rune said, and those ice-cold chills took over my back again in a second.

“Fucking prick,” I spit, so angry so suddenly my heart skipped a beat.

“He would have succeeded if I hadn’t found you,” Raja said. “It seemed I was always going to, if the seer is to be believed.”

The idea that someone could actually foresee the future like this made no sense to me still. Not at all, even though I remembered the prophecy perfectly. I remembered every single word—and I knew for a fact that it had come to pass.

“What I don’t get is why,” I said, reaching out to touch Vair’s fur absentmindedly—it was so soft and fluffy.

“Why would Lyall want to kill you by bringing you all the way here? It makes no sense, does it? If all he wanted was your death, why bother to track you down and not attack you, but tell you that I was here?” It didn’t add up—and it wasn’t just my instincts screaming it this time.

“We can’t hope to understand the whims of princes, can we,” Raja said.

“We should if we want to understand what’s going on here. It’s Lyall—he wouldn’t have tracked him down all the way to Mysthaven with only a lie.”

“He wouldn’t,” Rune said. “He does have a good reason for it.”

Lyall definitely did. I knew him well enough now not to doubt that for a second.

But then Raja said, “Regardless of his intentions—I think our focus should be on the fact that the Ice Queen separated her soul into two, and now you , mortal, are a part of her.”

“I’m not.” The words slipped from my lips the next second. “I’m not…”

Except…I was , wasn’t I? A vessel—that’s what I was.

“ Why ?” Raja continued. “Can you not ask her pet if he can speak—why would she do such an atrocious thing?” She shook her head, eyes wide and dark, on Vair now.

“That is dark magic. Our souls are our most precious belongings—and to rip one in half?! The reason why is what I want to know—that’s the only thing that matters. ”

“If only I remembered,” Vair said.

“He can’t remember the reason, only that she did it,” I said and continued to pet his back—which I wasn’t sure he even noticed.

“The Ice Queen was no fool,” Raja whispered.

“No other royal has ever been adored by her people the way she was, before the prophecy. If she did something like this, she had a very good reason. You don’t recover from something like this.

You never again become whole. That she would condemn herself to such a fate… ”

“It’s in my memories,” Rune said. “I can almost guarantee it. I’m almost certain that that’s the reason why the Midnight King erased my memory of that night.”

My heart jumped. “He knows.”

Raja’s jaw about touched the floor. “And the pig didn’t want anybody else to find out,” she whispered, looking ahead somewhere between Rune and me but not seeing anything—and then she laughed.

It was short and bitter, and it pierced my ears, so loud it cut off the sound of the water pouring beyond the edge of the cave for a moment .

“It affects him!” she suddenly screeched. “It hurts him, whatever it is he wanted you to forget—it hurts him!”

I looked at Rune—was it just me or did Raja lose it? Because she was laughing, and she really didn’t look like a person who even knew how.

Even Rune looked a bit uncomfortable while he looked at her and said, “I know what you’re trying to get at.”

Raja stopped abruptly—and I knew, too.

“Because it’s the only way,” she said.

Words died on my tongue. I wanted to say, I agree, but then…

“It’s not going to happen,” Rune said, and that sounded a lot more reasonable.

“I can do it,” Raja insisted. “I can remove the rest of it.” Except even she didn’t sound like she believed her own self.

“You’re still wounded,” I said, looking down at her body. Her dress was black, and it covered her all the way up to her neck, so I couldn’t see her wound. But it was there. Vair had smelled it. The seer had seen it.

“I’m fine,” Raja said, but Rune leaned closer to her.

“Are you still wounded, Raja?” And he sounded like he was ready to unleash a goddamn storm upon us.

“Like I said—” Raja started, but I wasn’t going to let her finish.

“Vair can smell her blood. The seer said she was,” I told Rune, and the woman looked at me like she suddenly wanted to burn me alive.

“The seer said that part of the curse she broke still clung to her, and that she should take care of it because the stars have big plans for her still.” He squeezed my hand between his.

“She said she was expecting Raja’s return, too. ”

And Raja was now looking down at the cave floor, jaws clenching so hard we could hear her teeth popping .

Rune looked at me, confused—curious. “There is another way to lift the mark.”

“No,” Raja and I said at the same time.

Because we both knew what he meant, too—he meant through his father.

“He marked me. He can take it back,” said Rune.

“He wouldn’t, Rune, and you know it. Just the fact that Lyall tried to get you in front of him tells you all you need to know.” It was clear as day.

“He will kill you the moment he sees you,” Raja said.

“And besides—it doesn’t matter, does it?” I turned to him, put my hand on his cheek. “It doesn’t matter why when it’s all done now. We know the truth.” I flinched. “ Most of the truth. We don’t need to know more to get out of here.”

Silence for a moment, the kind that scared me a little. Both Rune and Raja were looking down, the wheels in their heads turning.

And Vair put a paw over my knee to get my attention. “The truth is important, Nilah.”

Didn’t I fucking know it.

I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply.

“The Midnight fae is right. The Ice Queen was a very smart woman. She wouldn’t have sacrificed herself like this if she didn’t have a reason.”

Sacrificed. “Or maybe she just wanted to stay alive,” I muttered, and Rune and Raja didn’t even react—they knew I was talking to Vair.

The lynx shook his head. “If she’d meant to stay alive, she would have been here now.

She’s not alive. She’s…forever torn.” He stood up, turned and sat right to my side, looking at me with those wide eyes.

The others turned to hi m, too, watched him even though they couldn’t hear the words coming out of his mouth.

“Do you understand what it means to tear a soul?”

“I’ve read Harry Potter.” Which he already knew. I’d told him the story back in the Ice Palace.

“This is not a tale, Nilah. A torn soul is the ultimate price to pay— why would the queen pay it?”

A lump in my throat. The voices in my head whispered, and some screamed—but in the end, it didn’t matter, did it?

“We’re all tired,” Rune then said. “Let’s take some time to rest and think.”

I didn’t want to do either of those things, but I also didn’t want to keep talking. To keep thinking.

And Raja must have needed some time off, too, because she jumped to her feet first. “There’s food in my bag over there.” She pointed deeper into the cave, to the other side of the entrance where she’d been sitting, and where her cloak was folded on the floor. “I’m going to guard the entrance.”

Putting her unsheathed sword over her shoulder, she walked away with her chin raised, like she was defying us to stop her.

Vair stood up, too. “I think I need to take a walk. I trust you will think about it, Nilah. Will you?”

If only I could stop it… “I will,” I told him. “Don’t go far.”

I wasn’t entirely sure if it could be considered a smile, but his expression changed a bit. “I’ll be all right.”