Page 223 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

But she’s thought about it, oh yes. Melody’s question struck deep. Is Caryan bad? No. She loved him.

But then, didn’t she say exactly that to the blacksmith—warning him, about Caryan?

She’d been so blind. Blind with love. Perenilla had been right, all Blair wanted was to be at his side. She’d never really thought about anything beyond that.

And avoided thinking of him at all after they split up.

What if she’d overlooked something essential?

She laughs, quietly to herself, like a lunatic. There is no stopping Caryan anyway. There is no one in this fucking world who could stop him. Not even with all their forces aligned. She’d seenhim on that battlefield, and that was before he broke her aunt’s chains and consumed all her magic.

And once he found those relics…

She looks up when she hears someone running. Fast. A second later, the girl appears, Blair’s black sword strapped down her spine. Her eyes are feral, her breath coming fast and uneven. There are bruises on her wrists and around her neck.

“I’m going to run,” she says. “You can come with me if you promise not to hurt me.”

Crazy little thing indeed. Blair smiles with her teeth to hide her surprise. “I knew you were a bad idea the moment I saw you.”

“I don’t have time for this. You want to come or not?”

“Sure,” Blair says and gets up. “I like bad ideas. I just doubt that you can open that door.”

“I think I can.”

Blair watches Melody drawing closer, her eyes coming to rest on some of what looks like Caryan’s runes on her wrist.What the fuck?How did those runes end up onherbody? And what is that in their middle? A fuckingbargain.

Melody puts her hands on the wall next to the door. The runes on her arm start to gleam, and the bars begin to dissolve as if they were never there.

“How the hell did you get Caryan’s magic?” Blair snarls, torn between fascination and, yep, bone-eating jealousy.

“Long story. Later. Let’s run,” the girl says. She’s already turned on her heels, sprinting towards the stairs.

For a second, Blair contemplates grabbing her. Dragging her back to Caryan. What would he do? Maybe he’d take her back if she’d delivered his precious half-human up to him on a silver platter. But where the hellisCaryan?

And no, Caryan would probably kill her anyway, the girl wouldn’t change that. So Blair follows, for now.

They run. The girl seems to know her way around the Fortress. Yet as soon as they leave the claustrophobic staircase to the dungeon, Blair can’t help but stare at the breathtaking architecture, the perfectmixture of the fae and human world. When Ronin and Kyrith brought her here, she’d been half dead, but now the lightness and splendor hit her like a blow as they dash down a vast corridor.

“Do you actually have a plan?” Blair asks.

“Cars. There were cars,” Melody says, pushing against a door and bolting down stairs.

They reach an empty hall that looks almost like a cave, something hewn in stone, not necessarily by anything with hands, Blair notes.

“Fuck, where are they?” Melody mutters, because there is no trace of cars.

Blair looks down on her nails. “Fuck is always my favorite option, although you’re not exactly my type.”

“There’s a tunnel. They must be in there somewhere.” The girl ignores her and runs towards that black, cavernous mouth of a hole in the wall.

“Whoa, wait a second, firecracker! Maybe we should contemplate finding another way,” Blair suggests as the faintest hint of carrion reaches her nose.

“It’s the only way,” the girl shoots back and slinks into the dark.Great.

Blair stalks after her. Darkness envelops her, so pristine that even her night vision is useless. Hells, it’s so much like Caryan’s deadly power it makes Blair’s skin itch and crawl.

“That’s for sure not the only way—” Blair starts, blurting into the cloud of darkness while she keeps her hands out so she won’t hit the wall headfirst.

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