Chapter 4 #4
Soldiers lined the walls outside the doors.
I was on the fifth floor of the Midnight Palace, with the throne room on the other side of the wide hallway, just around the right corner, and what was supposed to be a study, a private chamber for the king with its personal library, and records of the court’s history all perfectly preserved—if I cared enough to read any of it right now.
The soldiers bowed their heads as I passed. The sound of the metal of their helmets touching their chest plates irritated me, too. Everything irritated me, and it would until she was beside me again.
I made for the stairs halfway down the hallway, near the corner behind which was the throne room. The archway there was engraved with ravens and swirls of smoke, and I felt the magic of it when I went through, but I didn’t stop. I wouldn’t.
Except when I made it down a story, I came out through the same archway, in the same hallway with the same soldiers standing by the walls as before. With the doors to my bedroom, and Raja standing in front of me with a stern look on her face, right in front of me.
Something inside my chest twisted. Realization tried to settle but I refused to let it. I refused.
Instead, I ran down the stairs a second time.
And a third, and a seventh.
I always came right back into the hallway.
Nilah had told me all about how the Ice Palace had held her captive until she’d figured out how she was connected to the Ice Queen, but I still couldn’t quite believe it. I couldn’t believe a building would dare get in my way of her now.
Raja called my name, but I couldn’t even acknowledge her.
My magic had gathered in the palms of my hands, so much more than I’d ever had before, and I embraced it.
Called it forth. Wrapped it around my skin like a suit.
With it, I planned to break whatever hold this palace seemed to have on me.
Through my shadows, I was going to make it out.
Except even as I thought that, deep down, I knew. I felt it, only because I didn’t feel the palace at all. I didn’t feel its magic, and yet it had the power to do this to me.
With my shadows wrapped around my entire body, I ran again.
Down the stairs, over and over and over again. The same stairs. The same archway. The same hallway.
It was like my shadows slid over whatever magic the palace coated itself in. They were no match for it. I was no match for it.
Eventually, I slowed down.
I sat on the stairs in the middle of the round staircase that took me back to the same place whether I ran up or down.
I sat in the middle, out of breath. The rage that burned inside me kept shadows on my fingertips still, even though I could have sworn that I’d used every ounce of magic I could let out, yet it was still there. Still vibrant.
Raja’s footsteps down the stairs echoed in my head as she came and sat with me on the same stairstep. Kept her eyes ahead on the stone wall.
We said nothing for a long while, until my breathing return to normal, until my fisted hands stopped shaking.
Then I said, “Nilah,” because she kept forgetting. Maybe this throne and this kingdom meant something to her, but they didn’t to me. Not nearly as much as Nilah—and now I couldn’t even make my way to her?
“Nilah is not here right now, Rune,” Raja said, her voice ice-cold, perfectly emotionless.
“If you know of any way to get out of here…” I said because a part of me still thought Raja capable of everything. If there was someone who could manipulate the Midnight Palace, it would be her.
“There isn’t,” she said without hesitation. “The only way you can leave this wing is if the palace knows you don’t plan to leave. You can’t fool it, boy. It’s as ancient as this land.”
It’s a fucking building! “She’s—”
“Safe.” I stopped speaking. “She is safe. Away from all this madness. Away from magic and curses and anyone who would want to hurt her. Nilah is safe for now. We are not.”
I’m not sure how long I stayed there, motionless, staring at nothing while my mind became more and more crowded with memories of the past—the Ice Queen’s face, her eyes, her smile—and Nilah. My reason for being alive.
“She will be all right, Rune.” Raja had moved in front of me, put her hand over mine. “She’s a smart girl. As tough as it gets. For all we know she’ll find her way to you. She always does.”
That was true. She was the most stubborn, incredible person I would likely ever meet. But…
“She can’t. He banished her. She won’t be able to cross the Aetherway.”
Raja thought about it for a moment. “Then you can try to remove it, so then when you’re free to go after her, you can actually bring her back.”
Bring her back.
My stomach twisted uncomfortably, and the magic, those shadows, rioted inside me. Nilah had wanted nothing more than to be back home for so long, and now she was.
She was in her home now.
A thought occurred to me that shut down all others. Would she even want to come back?
“She belongs here, too, now,” Raja continued, as if she’d heard the thoughts in my head. “If the Ice Queen made her calculations right, the Frozen Throne will accept her. But you must make sure that the Midnight Court remains under your rule first.”
“She did,” I said, my voice dry. A headache developed behind my eyes so fast—by the sheer intensity of the magic that rose inside me, and my instinct to control it, push it down. “The Ice Queen made her calculations right. She was certain that it would work. The Frozen Court would have an heir.”
A moment of silence.
“Then it is settled.” Raja stood up. “You will remain here until the palace lets you go. Until then, if Nilah finds you, all the better.”
The walls, the stairs, the fae lights floating about mocked me, laughed at my face.
Raja was right—I was trapped here. Not only because this building wouldn’t allow me to leave, but because even if I somehow did, and the Midnight Court was taken by someone who wasn’t of the royal bloodline, it wouldn’t matter if I got Nilah back.
There would be no place to get her back to.
I had a lot of reading to do, and a lot to talk about with the seer, but Verenthia would not last if what the Ice Queen said was true. For now, it seemed I was trapped in these velvet clothes, in this palace, in this kingdom.
Raja cleared her throat from the top of the stairs behind me.
“Ready for the throne room, Your Highness?”