Page 144 of Of Rime and Ruin
Through clenched teeth, I strengthen my spell. I grasp the orb inside her mind and squeeze until it fractures like glass. Veins splinter across its surface. Color leaks out, hissing through the cracks. Building in pressure.
The icy grip of panic wraps around my spine. I squeeze my eyes shut, crushing the orb with all my strength, and wait for whatever comes first—her teeth or her demise.
The orb bursts.
The clawbeast stops short, teeth snapping shut. Her eyes widen, and her grip loosens.
Her memory erupts with a rumbling force, flinging me to the far reaches of her conscience. Emotions pour out. Sadness. Longing. Loss. They churn and grow, washing through her mind like great waves. Grief crashes over me, plunging me into her tumultuous sea of memory.
Pieces of her life flash before me, too fast to grasp them all.
A home built within the ice. Chasing silverfish through the Rime. Catching them with bare hands. She was forced to marry young. Too young. He wanted a son. She tried to give him one, but she wasn’t fast enough. Beatings. Blood. Her only solace the comforting caresses of her handmaid lover at night, where he couldn’t see. She let her rage build for years, kept it close to her heart.
Finally, a viable hatchling. A male. She feared for his life, with a father like that. She plotted the king’s demise. Poison in his rum. It was easy. Old age, she said. The kingdom believed her.
Her loving handmaid helped her raise the guppy. Her son would be king someday, and he would be a good king. Better than the last.
I gasp as Aethan’s young face floods her mind.
Hatchling Aethan watching her with big blue eyes from the crook of her elbow. Tiny hands. Tiny tailfin. A larger Aethan rolling in glacierweed. Adolescent Aethan in the library, surrounded by stacks of tomes. Asking question after question. Eager to learn. Eager to rule.
Her son.
Memories intertwine with her mood. Her mind grows rapidly, expanding past its shattered defenses. Building new ones. I find myself inside an intelligent being’s mind, bursting with color and complexity of thought. I tumble to the edge, pressed out.
When I broke her center of self, I didn’t kill the beast—I freed her.
In shock, I cut my spell, landing back within myself. Every scale rises along my body. We stare at each other, both dumbfounded. She blinks, all traces of aggression fading from her features.
The clawbeast thinks she’s Aethan’s mother.
Fucking hell. If that’s true, why was she trying to kill him? Her actions don’t add up to reason.
Aethan twists out of her grip, reorienting himself in the water. With a strong arm, he pushes me behind him, placing himself between me and the beast. He growls and raises his hands. The water around his fingers crystallizes with the beginning of his spell.
Sharp blades form in the water, hovering. Ten. Then Twenty. Thirty. He builds them rapidly, collecting a deadly arsenal of ice. His back flexes before my gaze as he prepares to attack. A vein protrudes from his skin, running the length of his neck.
My stomach twists in a hard knot. “Aethan, wait,” I whisper.
The shards whir, gaining speed as they spin. The beast shuffles away, hands reaching behind as she backs into the wall.
Gone is the fight in her eyes. Her shoulders slump.
Is it all an act? To trick me into trusting her? The bitch flung Perrin against the wall. She nearly crushed Aethan in her claws. And I’m supposed to throw that all away because I read her memories?
Maybe they were fabricated somehow. Maybe she’s been stalking him his whole life, waiting for the right moment to spring.
Aethan growls. His Voice alters the note of his spell, and the projectiles take aim. The beast raises her hands, covering her eyes with a whimper. She peeks between her fingers, watching Aethan with a sad, proud look in her eyes.
“Wait!” I shout.
As Aethan barks with intent, I wrap my arms around his waist and yank. We fall.
Ice flies off course. The shards batter the wall, shattering on impact. A few graze the clawbeast’s flesh, shredding her skin in bloody tatters along her ribs. But not deep enough to kill.
Aethan’s legs twist around my tail as we tumble. He wraps me in his arms, cushioning me against the impact of the sharp rocks beneath us. Protective. His mouth finds my ear.
“What are you doing?” he hisses. “I had it!”
