The Shattered Dark
Page 52“Lena’s thinking about allowing anyone to enter it,” he says. “The high nobles are against the idea.”
Of course they are.
“They love their privileges,” I say.
Aren nods. “It’s beautiful?”
I shift my focus from the palace’s silver-rimmed turrets to him. “You haven’t seen it yet?”
“I’ve been busy.”
True. That’s why we’ve only seen each other a handful of times since Atroth died.
“It’s beautiful,” I tell him, remembering the vibrant green leaves edged in pinks and purples. “Even at night, the flowers are brighter and more alive than any I’ve seen in my world, and they’re lit with magic. Their petals are soft. Their scent lingers on your skin and…”
I stop. The only reason I know that last part is because Kyol laid me down on a bed of laubrin at the foot of the Sidhe Cabred’s waterfall. I thought the flowers would be prickly and uncomfortable; they weren’t. They were sleek and silky, and Aren doesn’t need to know what Kyol and I almost did on top of them.
“It’s beautiful,” I say again. Aren’s watching me, his thoughts unreadable in his silver eyes. He doesn’t look away until we near the base of the palace. He calls out to the guards watching us through hidden slits in the wall, and the small doorway beside the big, elaborate gate opens, allowing us entry.
“You should try to get some rest before we fissure to Boulder,” Aren says once we’re inside.
Lena’s decided to give the vigilantes time to pack up and leave for Cleveland, so we have a few hours before I need to be ready to go. Sleep isn’t a bad idea, so I nod and tell him I’ll meet him later.
I head to my room to get as much rest as I can, but when I turn down the corridor that leads to the second level of the residential wing, I see Paige scrambling across the floor on her hands and knees.
She’s heading away from me, but she looks over her shoulder when she hears my voice, and her eyes grow wide. “It wasn’t me.”
“What wasn’t—” I stop. In front of her, a fae lies unconscious on the floor. I’m not sure who it is. His face is bloody, and he has at least two bruises swelling up near his right temple. He didn’t go down on the first hit.
“It was Lee.” Paige rises to her feet. “He’s gone after his brother.”
I curse. More than one fae should have been watching their doors.
I start to move past her—I have to find Naito before Lee does—but she grabs my arm.
“Don’t involve the fae,” she says. “Please. I can talk to him.”
“He’s already involved them.” I jab a finger toward the fae on the ground, who’s beginning to stir.
She looks down. “I know, but we had a fight, and I said some things…”
“He’s a vigilante,” I say. “Do you know what that is?”
“No.” She meets my eyes. “But he’s not the person he’s trying to be. I swear, McKenzie.”
“Vigilantes hate fae. They hate humans who help fae.” I start down the corridor again—I don’t have time to stand here and have this conversation. Paige follows.
“Did the remnants not know what he was?” I ask when I reach a staircase. I take the steps two at a time.
We reach the bottom of the stairs. They lead out to the arched covered walkway that surrounds the statue garden. Only a few fae are here right now. I spot a guard and head toward him.
“I thought you hated Lee,” I say to Paige even though I suspected otherwise.
“I want to hate him,” she says. “I met him at Amy’s wedding. He asked to meet you, but you were with Aren, so we hung out. Hooked up. He’s actually fun when he’s not being an idiot.”
“You said yourself he was using you to find Naito.”
“And Aren is using you to fight the Court fae,” she counters.
I glare at her, but she has a point. Aren and I started off all wrong. “He’s not using me anymore.” He loves me—I’m 100 percent certain of that—and he’d do anything for me.
I veer toward the guard. Paige notices where I’m heading immediately.
“Please don’t involve the rebels.”
I stop to look at her. She changed out of her wet clothes. Someone delivered new ones. The narrow-sleeved white top looks more like a jacket than a shirt. It’s laced up the middle, and the two tails flow over her hips. The tan skirt is short—I think she ripped off the lower half—but she’s compensated for that with boots that reach up to her knees. Everything is fae-made, but somehow, it all looks like something she’d pull out of her own closet.
This is Paige, I remind myself. My friend. She’s never asked me for anything, and she’s always been there for me even though I haven’t always been there for her, but if anything happens to Naito…
No. I can’t risk it just because she asks.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“I understand,” she lies.
It feels like someone’s stabbed my chest from the inside. I’m going to lose my only friend, I realize, and it’s like I’m losing my last connection to my human life. Paige has always put up with my eccentricities and random disappearances. She’s always made me feel normal. I guess I finally need to accept that I’m not. I never will be.
“I’m sorry,” I say again, then I start walking toward the guard. It’s possible Lee passed by here, and the fae didn’t detain him. Under Atroth’s reign, humans were hardly ever stopped or questioned as long as we stayed in the public areas of the palace. It was assumed that, unless the fae were told otherwise, we belonged here. I know Lena is suspicious of Paige and Lee—that’s why she put a guard outside their door—but I don’t know if she’s issued a general alert to all her people.
I’m only a few steps away from the guard when I see movement in the corner of my vision. Lee leans against the wall in the covered walkway opposite the one Paige and I stepped out of. He slides down it, sinking to the ground then propping his arms up on his bent knees. Blood covers one of his hands.
Please don’t let it be Naito’s blood.
I hear Paige take in a breath. She moves toward him before I do, but I’m at her side a second later.
“Lee?” Paige says when we reach him.
He doesn’t raise his head. “I couldn’t do it.”
Thank God. The blood on his hand is his own. I can see the cuts and broken skin on his knuckles.
“I should have been able to do it,” he says.
Paige stares down at him. “Are you serious? You’re talking about killing a person. You’re talking about killing your brother.”
“I hate my brother.” His words come out more like a question than a statement of fact. “I’m supposed to hate the fae. They’ve been trying to kill my father for years.”