Page 28 of Oracle of Ruin

My eyes water. Fake. It’s all fake, just another ploy to use me. No one cares. My whole life, I’ve been viewed only as a weapon. A tool. A means to an end. Irene wanted me to compete with Emilie. Ophelus wanted me as a sacrifice. Rowan wanted me to kill Ophelus. Lucius wanted me as a trophy.

The only person who wanted me for me is dead.

Mavis watches my pinched face in her usual calculating way, and I resist the urge to drag my fingernails across her pretty face, to ruin her just as badly as I’ve been ruined.

“I’m heading out again in a few days.” Mavis’s voice is jarring enough to jolt me back into reality. “I want you to come with.”

I raise an eyebrow in a calm façade. I pray to no particular god that she cannot hear the way my pulse races beneath my skin at the prospect of getting out from under this mountain. “Didn’t you just say you wouldn’t let me leave?”

“Only if you asked, but since I am the one asking you, I don’t see an issue here.”

“Why? What’s your motive?”

“I just thought you’d like to get out of here.” She shrugs so nonchalantly, as if she didn’t nearly just read my mind. As if she isn’t holding me prisoner.

My fists clench at my side.

She holds out her hand and I extend my own, only for her to grab ahold of my wrist and flip it so the underside is exposed. Before I can react, a sliver of darkness slices through her flesh, then my own. I scream and try to pull my arm back, but it only causes the magic to cut deeper. I can only watch in horror as my golden blood floats to mix with Mavis’s own gold-flecked blood in the small space between us. The blood tethers us together before disappearing all together, leaving only two identical lacerations on our wrists.

“We leave in three days. This makes it so you won’t be able to run away from me. Until I break that oath, you are tethered to me. You can go as far as I allow and stay as near as I want.”

My stomach lurches to my throat and a dread settles in my bones. Mavis never intends to let me go. This is all for show, a display of power, a way to mark me as hers and to keep me tied to her. Even if the Nightwalkers found me, I couldn’t leave. I’m trapped.

“You’re a bitch,” I seethe, frustrated tears pricking my eyes.

“Maybe. But don’t forget I’m doing this because you’re the answer. Anything I do to you is to save all of us. Don’t you miss your life at all?”

My eyes burn at the question. For so long now, I’ve hated myself for loathing my life to the point where I forgot to love those around me. Those simple moments where Blaine was the only one capable of catching me when I ran. When Torin would flirt with the stable hands and Tanja would dig her elbow into his ribs. I miss our breakfasts we’d sneak before the rest of the castle was awake. Even through the lashings, the fear, and the pain, they were my constants. Now they’re all gone. A shattered memory is all that remains and my filthy mind is the only one that gets to see it. They deserved so much more.

And yet I think back to sparring with Kya, trading insults over coffee with Amír, and watching Derrín work. The thrill of the chase back when Rowan wasn’t afraid to knock me on my ass. Before he looked at me like I was glass that could shatter at any moment.

With a broken voice, I croak, “Doyou?”

Mavis pauses. I swear I hear her whisper, “Always,” under her breath before she closes the door with nothing but a soft click to remember her by.

I find myself curling up on my side, tucking my knees to my chest. The ghost of a breeze caresses my back, so soft that I check to make sure it is not a hand. It traces soothing shapes across my skin, and the sweet lull of sleep pulls me under.

Chapter14

Verosa

The snowstorm outside grows so intense that the stronghold is completely shut down. Mavis recalls all her scouts and sentries before the thick of it is upon us. Once the final men and women are through the doors, she bars all entrances and exits, windows and doors. Her dark power thrums in every crevice of the cavern. Even if anyone were to try to raise those doors, they would never be able to. Much like the magic surrounding my door, the handles and walls of any exit burn those with the intention of opening it. I’ve seen Neris lean on it and I’ve touched the handles and levers myself. They only burn when I try to leave.

The only advantage the thick blanket of snow provides is that my door now opens for me. Mavis locked all the weaponry away in an armory, the entrance sealed with the same dark magic that has kept me in my room these past few weeks. When I asked what she would do if there was a need for weapons, she just smiled and asked if I genuinely thought she would lock her people out of the armory. My cheeks burned with embarrassment and indignation as I read between the lines. Only I was barred from any form of weaponry.

However, with all dangers and exits locked away, Mavis felt it should be safe for me to freely wander the compound. I’ve taken full advantage of my newfound freedom, scouring every available room I can get to. Most of the doors have been locked or lead only to dead ends.

“Can we head back now? I already told you it’s boring,” the second stipulation of my freedom quips, her head lolling back with a groan. Emi’s face drags with boredom as she trails behind me. For some reason, Mavis believes a scrawny fourteen-year-old—she finally confided in her age after my endless pestering—will be capable of stopping me if I decide to run away. I do not want to learn why she has such faith in Emi and choose to simply heed it as a warning.

“We can head back when you show me something interesting.”

“Vera. It is cold, and I am tired. Dinner was hours ago and you’ve been forcing me to cart you around like a show pony. My feet hurt, my head hurts, mybrainhurts,” the teen drawls dramatically, laying an arm across her forehead.

Sighing, I allow her to lead me back to my room, apologizing on the way. She simply ignores me like she usually does. She is tired enough that as she closes my bedroom door, she doesn’t notice my shoe sticking out the bottom, keeping it from shutting all the way. As soon as the coast is clear, I slip back out into the dimly lit halls. I cling to the shadows like Kya taught me. I know I won’t be able to escape, but at least now I can find something interesting to occupy my time with.

As I walk, I survey the halls I pass through, noting my way home and which turns to take so I can slip back into my room, my little escapade unbeknownst to anyone else in the compound.

A small flicker of light draws my gaze skyward. There, I see a small candle in what looks like a window atop a steep stone wall. There. That is my target tonight.

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