Page 46 of Mostly Shattered

Why am I alive?

I search for signs of life, but there are none.

“Help!” I yell. “Is anyone there?”

How do I stop this? How can I make it right?

The amulet reversed time once before, maybe…

I fumble to feel my pockets. In my haste, I forgot the amulet upstairs. I look at the destroyed building. I’ll never find it now.

My fingers bump the phone in my back pocket, and I grab it. The screen is flickering and I’m not getting any signal.

I set the useless object down on my concreteisland and pull my knees to my chest. I close my eyes and lean my head down, willing it all to go away. I don’t know how long I sit there. More crashes puncture the silence. I can’t begin to comprehend the full depth of my loss. Everyone I care about is gone.

This is how the world ends, and it’s all my fault.

Chapter

Eleven

“Stand up straight,” Astrid orders in a hushed breath. Her annoyance is clear, but I don’t understand how she got there.

I gasp, opening my eyes and lifting my head.

The apocalyptic landscape is gone, replaced by the undamaged penthouse foyer. Confused, I look around the home. How did I get back up here?

I’m standing upright next to my mother. I instantly try to hug her, relieved that she’s alive. Astrid blocks my arms and knocks them away. I see magic surge defensively on her fingertips before she catches herself. I caught her by surprise.

“I told you that dash of potion in your coffee would make you feel better. No need to sit in anxiety all day when magic can make it all better.” Astrid keeps her voice low. She pats my hair, and it remindsme of the seconds before I passed out in the limo after my birthday fire. “Now compose yourself. The Freemonts are waiting.”

The weight of the apocalyptic vision still clings to me, like the vestiges of a world that no longer exists. I can still feel the heat of the burning city, the suffocating silence of a world that crumbled under my failure. But here I am, back in this gilded cage, about to be forced into a marriage I never wanted.

How can she not see it? How can she be blind to what’s coming? It felt so real.

If I do nothing, that is the future that awaits us. I think of the burning city, the ash raining down like some twisted mockery of snowflakes, and I know—if I run from this, there will be nothing left to save.

I want to scream at her, to make her understand the stakes, but the words stick in my throat. She doesn’t know about the prophecy. All she and the rest of the elders care about is power and alliances and Mortimer’s premonitions. Chester Freemont is just another piece on their chessboard, and I’m the sacrificial pawn.

I can’t be here. Costin was right. I have to act. I have to go with him and face my fate. But how can I do that when I’m trapped, suffocating under the family elders’ expectations?

“I chose well. That gown is perfect on you,” Astrid says.

Gown? I follow her gaze downward. Who cares about gowns?

I’m in the blue silk dress and high heels. The material hugs my curves, the flowing fabric cool against my skin. The glint of diamonds around my wrist catches my attention as they glisten in the soft light, casting tiny sparkles of light onto the nearby wall. The puncture wounds on my hand are healed. Something weighs down my head, and as I reach up to touch my hair, my fingers bump against cold, smooth stones.

Am I wearing a tiara?

“How did I get—?” I don’t remember her giving me a potion to drink. In fact, she never touched my coffee.

“Are you sure you don’t know where your brother has gone off to?” Astrid talks over me. “We can’t find him. He should be here.”

I could answer that I last saw him at theMarcheur de Nuit Mausoleum, but I’m not ratting him out. There is no point in both of us having to suffer through this evening.

I press my heel firmly into the marble floor and steal a quick glance over my shoulder, assessing my options for a swift escape.

I remember the fear I felt in the falling elevator. I should never have translated the illustration. All it did was scare the crap out of me and cause a timeslip that put me squarely where I can’t be. Magic clearly explained away whatever state I was in before now by making Astrid believe she gave me a potion.

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