Look for any sign of deception. Of lies. Of hatred.
“He told me to come get you,” he repeats. His expression is earnest in a way it’s never seemed before.
“And go where?” I ask finally.
“Well first, we’ll get the extra cuffs removed,” he says. “My mama is at the Augur House. She can remove them. I’ll take you there myself.”
I follow his gaze to my wrists, and despite the stirring in my gut, I decide to trust him, just this once.
I carefully extractmyself from the memory, letting Elliot watch the ending by himself. I forced myself to retain this horrible moment, to harbor the anger and the hurt, to remind myself why I can never return to the Day Realm. Why I would never want to.
I ease out of the smoke, but I still know what Elliot sees:
Harrison leading me to the Augur House.
Me realizing the augurs aren’t there.
Harrison punishing me for corrupting his friend.
Me trying and failing to fight back.
Harrison trapping me against the desk in his mama’s office.
Harrison yanking off my leggings.
Me watching the office fish tank, praying someone would find me.
Harrison threatening to kill me if I ever talked to Elliot again.
Me crying, still face down on the desk.
Harrison leaving me with my underwear around my ankles.
Me walking home with a foreign pain between my legs and a hideous ache in my heart.
21
MY SECORA
ELLIOT
The memory ends. I stumble backward, scrambling to the tent’s exit. I don’t care that it’s dark or that dangerous predators are out for the night. I can’t think straight and the only way to fix it…
I stagger to the bushes and everything comes out. My meager breakfast, lunch, dinner. My scoured heart, lungs, soul. I’m suffocating, surrounded by oxygen. Dying without a single injury or illness.
Magic sparks through me. Courses through my arms and pulses at my fingertips. I’ve never been quick to anger, never felt this disastrous recklessness before. It’s all-consuming, wracking through my body until there’s nothing else left. There is only red-tinted vision and bone-rattling fury.
I clench my knees, staring as my vomit drips between the bush leaves. I’m prepared to stand here all night and wait for some ungodly creature to kill me. It is only Cora’s small hand on my back that snaps me back to reality.
Cora is consolingmeafter watching what happened toher.
It’s enough to regain control, to snap me out of the trance threatening to consume me whole. I blink and grind my teethtogether, taking several deep breaths before I stand to my full height. My magic doesn’t calm, even as I force my mind to focus.
I look at Cora.
She’s a foot shorter than I am. Short. Thin.
Without meaning to, I look at her wrists. They’re free now—have been for years—but they weren’t in that memory. She was defenseless. Half his size. Without magic.
