Page 19 of What Is Dark Within Me

She could have sworn his eyes softened, but the expression disappeared as the shadow of a cloud swept across the car’s interior.

“There are rules. It’s what I do and have always done,” Nicolas said after a long pause. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your folk. The Otherlanders rely on you as much as many of you rely on us.”

Aleja wanted to turn in her chair to look at him directly, but the monstrous, invisible thing between them bristled. “How did you choose?” she said quietly. “How did you choose which of my family to take?”

“You’re asking questions I don’t think you’ll like the answer to. Let’s find Laurent and we can be free of each other.”

The wind whipped hair into her face. Garm had settled into the backseat, and the air coming in through the open windows smelled of hay, wet grass, and the musk of a distant dairy farm. “Iwantto know. How did you choose?”

The question she really wanted to ask was;Why not me?Her family had spent years obsessing over her red hair and treating her like someone whose time on earth was limited.

“I took those who wanted to be taken.”

“What the hell does that mean?” she snapped.

“By the Second,” Nicolas said, eyes narrowing. “You really need to control your temper.”

She looked down, noticing a faint glow around her fingertips. An ember drifted from the top of her index finger, like a beginner’s magic trick. “Shit.”

“The best thing you can do is stay calm. I’m not sure what will happen to me if you die.”

They went another two hours in silence, aside from Garm’s whimper at the sight of grazing horses. Already, her phone struggled to keep a bar of service. The green was replaced with snow and cliffs so high it looked like they blocked the road ahead. If Aleja was being honest, she hated the woods. Hated the cold. The only time she’d willingly gone hiking was when Violet had insisted, and even then, it was mostly because of the fun they used to have grabbing celebratory beers afterward.

The sky was turning pink by the time she found the turnoff in the directions she’d screen-shotted. It was unsigned and banked steeply uphill, but the odometer told her enough miles had passed. When she squinted into the dark road ahead, she saw a coyote skittishly watching the car from the bushes.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

“What is it?” This was the first Nicolas had spoken in hours. It wasn’t as if she’d forgotten the sound of his voice, but its rumbling depth rattled her bones every time.

“Nothing,” she told him, but she wondered if she was being spectacularly stupid. Thierry Laurent might have been an old man, but he was still a magician. Not merely a magician, but a dabbler in the dark arts, the Silent Arts, and a devotee of the Knowing One, even if he’d never been interesting enough to win Nicolas’s attention. And now they were in the middle of nowhere with no phone service, with the snowfall growing heavy as clouds barreled through the twilight sky.

A wet nose bounced against the back of her neck.

“She’s nervous. It’s okay! We’ll protect you, won’t we, boss?” Garm said. His tail whacked against the backseat.

“Of course. If you die, you may take half of my power with you,” Nicolas mumbled.

“Great. That’s great. I’m supposed to be reassured by a creature that’s already almost killed me once,” she said, turning the car onto the road.

“Exactly. It would be very boring to do it again. Let’s find something else to kill!”

“Garm,no,” she scolded.

It was the first time she heard Nicolas give a genuine laugh.

* * *

They hadto abandon the car as Garm shot to his feet in the backseat and exclaimed, “Do you smell that? Chimney smoke.”

The snowbanks on either side of the road were so high that there’d be no driving back down the mountain tonight without using magic to clear the path. “Um, what’s the plan here?” she asked, wishing she’d thought to bring gloves and a hat as they trudged through the snow toward the distant glow of a cabin.

“Plan? We barge in and I demand he recreate the binding circle. He’ll know who I am and if he’s smart, he’ll listen,” Nicolas said. She was sure he hadn’t been wearing the massive sheath across his back a moment ago.

“Oh, great. You have an enormous sword. I’m glad to be finding this out now.”

“I always have this sword. I keep it hidden beneath a glamour. It’s engraved with the true name of every enemy I’ve slaughtered on the battlefield.”

“Okay, there is alotgoing on in the statement, but let’s put a pin in it for now. This guy might know where Violet is. I need to question him before you scare his beard off.”

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