Page 78 of Fortress of Ambrose
He held her roughly and forced her still while he changed her face. Red’s pouted lips. Red’s deeper-red ringlets. Her cheeks. Her shoulders. All of Nore became the dead girl again.
Yagrin uttered a sound that made Nore’s heart stammer.
He stumbled backward and gaped at her. Pale.
“You—”
“I wasaboutto tell you.”
“Plans have changed,” Ellery said.
Pain ripped down her back. She gritted her teeth, refusing to give him the enjoyment of hearing her scream.
“We have all the pieces; we can work together,” she said. “You’re mybrother. My safe person. My escape fromher.” She jabbed a finger in her mother’s direction, and the tears rolling down Red’s cheeks felt like flames.
Ellery dug out the Scroll piece from Perl and the half piece from their House. Yagrin cocked his head, feeling his own pockets for the parts they had. Nore eyed the piece in her mother’s fist. She considered all four of them. She could picture them side by side. Together they formed a piece of parchment.
But with a hole in the middle.
For a fifth piece.
The world dented at its edges. She couldn’t think. What did that mean?
“We are not done,” her brother said. “The pieces are in each of the Houses.Allthe Houses.”
Her body rocked in his grip. No! She hadn’t considered it.
“Duncan?” How did you find a relic in a House that’s been disbanded for generations? Her pulse raced. He glared at her. Without the Scroll he couldn’t bring her back to life, but he could still kill her, right now, and become Headmaster.
“I thought you loved me,” she forced out.
“I do. And I love this House. More than you love the House, clearly.” The dead handed him something reminiscent of a glove but made of shadows. He slipped it over his hand. She couldn’t breathe.
“You’re blinded by your pain, little sister. I’m freeing you.”
Ellery moved his gloved hand in a circular motion. The air glowed in away she’d never seen. Then he shoved his shadowed hand into her chest. Her body shook as he gripped her heart and pulled it out.
The audience gasped. Nore had forgotten they were there. Someone screamed in horror, and people fled in every direction.
“No!”Isla screamed, an earsplitting shriek. She blinked, then blinked again, eyes widening as if she was seeing for the first time.
Nore’s vision blurred.
The world dimmed.
The dead took her heart from her brother’s hands and placed it in a glass box. Her mother’s heart vanished the moment Nore’s entered. Ellery smirked. Isla gasped for air. The last thing she remembered was her mother falling on top of her with a face full of tears.
Thirty-Two
Quell
I stand unmoving, worried I’m gaping at some kind of dream. Or magic trickery. I blink harder, but the scene doesn’t change. My mother—or an illusion of her—stands ten strides away from me in a dark blue dress tied at her back, with her hair pulled into a low bun. I saw her bones amid her shredded things, with my own eyes. The wind picks up but sweat still beads on the back of my neck.
Is this real?
My mother sets down her woven basket. She tents her gaze with a hand, staring in my direction. Then she hikes up her skirt and gallops toward me.
“Quell!”
