Chapter 9 #2
“How?” I whispered, because if she was here and she had lived here for over two decades…
“I told you, I was bani—”
“How did you survive all those years in Nerith without magic?” Because Rune said that he would die within months if he came here, and it wasn’t like Rune to lie.
A grin. “Nerith, huh,” said the golem, and I felt my cheeks heating up. I had called Earth by the name Verenthians had given us—not Earth—and I hadn’t even noticed.
“Just answer the question,” I insisted because what the hell did it even matter what name I’d used?
“I’m not fae, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she said. “Fae cannot live outside our realm, but golems sure can. And a bunch of other species.”
I flinched before I could help it. I knew Rune hadn’t lied, but I was still a bit disappointed. There was a part of me that still thought we could somehow come back here, together, and live the rest of our lives on Earth.
“Why, then?”
“Why, what?” the golem asked.
“Why were you banished?”
A moment of silence. “Why were you?”
Her eyes immediately moved to my hands. I felt the magic in them. I knew they were lit up.
“Better yet,” the golem said, pointing a finger up without ever looking away from me. “Who made that fae light if you claim you’re not fae?”
Uncomfortable was a small word right now.
I fisted my hands until they hurt, and I forced the magic to retreat.
I didn’t think this golem was going to attack us, but if she did, I could handle it.
I would—Betty was with me. I always lost it extra quickly when the people I cared about were being threatened.
“Listen, Arez. Thank you for taking down those posts. I appreciate it,” I said, and I grabbed Betty’s hand. “It was nice meeting you, but we have to go now.”
“You can’t be serious,” the golem said, and when I made to move forward, she did, too. Stopped right in front of me. Looked up at me with those wide eyes that almost looked green just now. “Hold on a minute—just hold on!”
“I don’t want trouble,” I told her, and I meant it, but…
“I can help you, okay? I can help you!”
Another step forward, and this time it was Betty who stopped me. Pulled at my hand with both hers. “Nilah, wait.” I looked at her with my mouth open. She couldn’t be serious. “Let’s just…let’s just hear her out, okay? Let’s hear her out, is all I’m saying.”
“I can help you, I swear it,” said the golem, both hands raised, and she was unarmed. There was no magic on her, and I could have sworn the skin of her palms was made of stone. It looked smooth and pale grey, exactly like those stones in Verenthia. Specifically in the Frozen Court.
“Help me how?”
“Verenthia. You’re trying to go back, right? I saw you trying. I’m trying to go back, too! We can help each other, can’t we?” she said in a rush.
Maybe it was the fear speaking because she was a golem and she was here and she knew my name and it just didn’t add up—but I didn’t want to believe her. I didn’t want to even find out how she thought we could help each other.
But Betty was there still, and my hand was between hers.
She definitely liked the golem, because she told her, “It’s actually very important for Nilah to get to Verenthia right now.
A bunch of crazy shit is happening and she needs to go asap.
So, we’re all ears.” And she jerked my arms. “Right, Nil?”
As much as my instincts insisted for me to run the hell away from here, I couldn’t.
Betty was right. It was important to get to Verenthia right now because Rune was there.
Rune could be in trouble. Vair was completely alone.
And I still hadn’t learned the truth—the fucking truth we’d fought so hard to find. That I’d helped kill a king to find.
Rune would know by now. He would know why the Ice Queen did what she did, and how her death truly happened.
Most importantly—I would know why the throne room of the Ice Palace revealed the throne chair to me that night, just before it let me go. Like the Midnight Palace gave the throne chair to Rune when he killed his father and became king.
So much still to figure out. So much to learn.
“Nil,” Betty said, shaking me until I opened my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them.
“I won’t come back here again,” the golem said. “If I leave, I’m not coming back.”
Except she would—and she wasn’t a very good liar, I thought. Easy to tell, especially since I’d spent what felt like a lifetime in the fae realm.
“We’re all ears,” I forced myself to say, not because I trusted her—I didn’t.
But if she really thought she could help me get to Verenthia, then Betty was right, I wanted to know.
Without getting my hopes up, I thought, but…
too late. I was already looking at the golem like she might have all my answers for me a second in, and I couldn’t even smack myself in the face about it.
“The ley lines,” the golem said. “I know where most of them are near this Aetherway, and I know one big enough to carry us through—if we can fire it up with enough magic.”
There went my hopes, crashing and burning in front of my feet, just like I knew they would.
“What the hell’s a ley line?” Betty asked when I refused to say anything, and I closed my eyes again. Tried to think if I’d heard the term in Verenthia just in case, but I hadn’t. I’d read about it in books here on Earth, but I had never heard of it spoken out loud by anyone.
“They’re these currents of magic. Basically rivers of energy that carry incredible power and potential,” said the golem, and suddenly she cast a nervous look around, like she was trying to make sure nobody was out there spying on us.
“I’ve never heard of ley lines before,” I said, not entirely sure yet whether I wanted to tell her to leave—and keep ker promise to never come back.
The golem looked at me again. “You’ve never heard of the werewolves of The Vale?”
Werewolves of The Vale.
I stopped, Maera’s face painting itself in the center of my mind instantly. “I have heard of werewolves.”
“Do you know how they became werewolves then?” Wide greenish eyes locked on mine, and she hadn’t even blinked yet.
“Yes.”
“Then you have heard of the ley lines,” she concluded.
A moment ticked by. I was replaying every conversation I had with Maera in my mind as fast as I could, but…
“For fuck’s sake, can’t we sit down and talk like adults?” Betty said, and she let go of my arm and went to sit down near the tree right across from the Aetherway. “Come on, sit. Both of you.”
But the golem and I were still looking at one another.
My God, I hated to be so suspicious. It was like a disease, the feeling almost slimy, sticking to me uncomfortably. And I hated threats even more, but I still forced myself to say, “If you try anything, I will kill you.” And as horrifying as it was to realize it, I meant it.
If this golem tried to hurt Betty or my family, I was really going to do my best to kill her. I wouldn’t hesitate, not after all I’d seen.
And she knew it, too.
“Noted,” she said, and she stepped back and went to sit on Betty’s left without ever taking her eyes off me.