Page 34 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

Silence is my only answer.

I’ve lost her.

Chapter Eighteen

Sarielle

Ispin my horseto avoid the falling ice, and in the blink of an eye, Zyren is gone. Not only Zyren, but my horse, and the section of the forest I’d been standing in.

The place I now find myself is a small circular glen. Tall trees surround it like sentinels, too close together for anyone to get in or out. My boots slip, and I realize that it’s not frozen ground beneath me, it’s an iced-over pond. Snow still falls, but it’s less blinding than before. Far, far overhead, the sky is a distant disc of gray.

I’m afraid to speak, given what happened before.

Someone else speaks first.

“A queen of Valaron, it is,” the voice says. It seems to come from below the surface of the frozen pond. It sounds female, and ancient, and full of malice. A voice of broken stars, sharp enough to cut. “How very interesting.”

“Who—who are you?” I gasp. “What have you done with my companions?”

“Your lives were forfeit the moment you stepped into my forest. I have a reputation, do I not? If you are so careless withyour lives, do not ask what I have done. I have done, and will do, whatever I wish.”

“We had no choice. We were being hunted.”

“It would have been better for the nightmares to find you.” There’s a terrifying sound that I realize a moment later is a laugh.

“How do you know about them? And about me?”

“Oh, I know a great many things. I can see into that weak little mind of yours as easily as looking into a mirror. A shame for Valaron to have such a pathetic queen.”

My heart is racing so fast I’m afraid I might pass out. I force myself to suck in air to calm my nerves. “I had barely set foot in Valaron before I was crowned queen. I’m doing the best I can.”

“Oh, yes. I know that, too, fool child. I know everything you know. I know your greatest hopes and your darkest fears. I know you let your guardian defile your body last night, even though the price you pay to be with him will cost you both everything. I know you abandoned your so-called best friend and left her to suffer your fate.”

The voice rages around me, taunting, relentless, echoing. It seems to come from everywhere and nowhere. Tears form in my eyes, burning in the icy air. But one thing stands out more than everything else.

“My best friend? You know of Lilette?”

The voice makes a sound of derision like a dry, hacking cough. “I see not only your wretched thoughts. I see all that there is. All that could be. All that will never be. Do you want to see what Lilette suffers because you left her all alone?”

And suddenly, the forest is gone, and I am standing in the cathedral at the Amethyst Palace. The change is shocking. It’s not just something I can see. I feel the hard marble floor beneath my boots. I smell the ever-cloying incense. The air is dark and litby candles, and my eyes take several moments to adjust from the bright blue-white of the forest.

I hear chanting.

I walk toward it, not because I consciously decide to walk, but because something moves my limbs like a puppet, jerking me toward the small antechamber behind the large main chamber. My mind begins to rebel immediately, because I know all too well what happens in the small chamber. Once a month, during the ritual of joining. What nearly happened to me the night Zyren appeared and I accidentally sent us both to Valaron.

The elder priestesses stand in a circle around a ring of candles on the floor. In the center, kneeling on a pile of furs, is the High Priest. His bright blue eyes pierce the darkness of the room. He’s on his knees, crouching over someone on the floor beneath him. I don’t need to see the blonde hair or the brown eyes to know it’s Lilette. The chants of the priestesses fill the room, magic spiraling around them. Magic which feels so wrong.

Revulsion drops me to my knees and my stomach spews bile across the floor. My gaze locks on Lilette and for a moment, I think she sees me, because her eyes widen.

Then I’m back in the forest again, the surface of the frozen pond burning even through my gloves. The sharp tang of my vomit fills my nose, and hot tears course down my cheeks. For several long moments, all I can do is focus on breathing, my lungs cramping, as images of Lilette spin through my head. I’d hoped it wasn’t her. We’d trained all our life for that fate, but I knew she didn’t want it any more than I did. Even if it meant getting to be High Priestess. She’d been in love with Dain, a love she could never see realized.

A feeling I know all too well.

Through my horror and sorrow, another emotion surges to the surface.Rage.

“Send me back,” I growl, shadows beginning to spin around me. Tendrils of it shoot across the surface of the icy pond, and the trees around the perimeter shiver.

“You want to see more?” The voice says, menace and intrigue laced together.

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