Frey

Chapter 15

The dreams I had then were the most dreadful of my life. I jolted awake and shuddered at the images I could not beat down, my mother screaming in agony, her body tearing and breaking from the magic inside, fire, blood, betrayal.

Ruby was there, waiting for me.

"Where are the others?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

"They've set up a perimeter."

It was all I had to say. I felt empty, alone. It was dark—even with the dust, I'd not slept through the night. I sat up, curling my legs against my chest, and wrapped my arms around them, pulling tightly.

Though I didn't speak, I occasionally glanced or glared at Ruby. She sat, immobile, watching me.

It was morning before she broke. "You have your fire back."

It hadn't occurred to me. I held my hand out, flicked a flame above my palm, then promptly extinguished it. I tried moving a stone from the ground to no avail. Just fire. I sighed. But Ruby looked hopeful.

The group approached warily, keeping their eyes on me. Chevelle hung farther back, avoiding my gaze as he hovered near the edge of the mist. Steed led my horse to me. I didn't think I blamed him—he seemed to be involved by chance—but I hadn't fully decided yet. I was too occupied by my anger at Chevelle. It might have been irrational, but it felt as if he lied to me again. He'd been there before, when my mother was killed. He had known all of it, and he'd kept it from me. He had bound me from using my magic because I was dangerous, a deadly threat. I wasn't even wholly elf.

As we rode wordlessly through the cold stone landscape, my thoughts twisted and writhed as they were a pit of vipers. In the end, I'd decided I wasn't really that shocked about being half-human. It explained so much about myself, my clumsiness, lack of skill, and the fact that I never quite fit in. What took me by surprise was the betrayal I felt. In all the years I'd lived in the village, I'd never counted on anyone the way I had done with the group, and especially Chevelle. My chest was heavy.

The rest of me wanted everything to burn.

Struggling with my reactions kept me distracted from the ride. It was steep and rocky, with a haze hanging in the few spiky trees. When we stopped for the evening, the men quietly set up a perimeter, except for Chevelle, who was watching me as I glared back at him. I chastised myself for expecting more from him. He was my watcher. He'd volunteered to help council bind me. He owed me nothing. But it didn't stop the hostile glower I was sending his way.

Ruby stepped in front of him. "I'll stay with her."

He didn't reply but merely turned from her to walk into the haze.

I was still fuming when she faced me, wearing a self-satisfied smile. She practically danced forward to plop down in front of me. "I have something for you, Frey."

I simply stared at her. She was harder to stay mad at. I expected her to be a pain—it wasn't as difficult to accept that she'd kept the truth from me.

She extracted a small package from beneath her cloak and passed it to me. I pulled the material aside and saw the V etched into the cover. I wondered what Chevelle would do if he knew she'd given it to me.

She answered my curious gaze. "It's yours, and I think you should be able to read it."

I could do nothing but nod. It didn't matter. Her expression made it clear that she considered herself forgiven. She faced the direction Chevelle had gone and left me to my discoveries.

I expected fury from my father. He never failed to disappoint me. He saw the child, as he called her, as an opportunity. I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, had he not stolen my mother for precisely the same purpose, to experiment with power? He did, however, concern himself with where I'd found a human.