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Itugged my cloak tighter; I had never been this close to the Endless Mist before.
It seemed alive, somehow. Like it was breathing. Pulsing.
The sound it made was low and steady, like hummingbird wings—a constant flutter of white noise. If I took two steps forward, I could touch it.
. . . I reached out.
I snatched my hand back.
Twirling, I glared at Arkyn, who stood a few feet behind me. “You woke me up at the crack of dawn and dragged me all this way . . . just to come see the Endless Mist?”
He nodded, his expression strained. He had been more distant than usual this morning, like something was eating at him. Whatever it was, I could not place it. I questioned if he was still upset about last night. He had been angry and irritated, there was no mistaking it. But this? This was different.
“Do you hear anything?” Arkyn broke his vow of silence.
“It sounds like hummingbirds’ wings,” I replied, confusion saddling my brow. When we went to the Temple of Light, he’d asked if I tasted anything. I’d found out that what I tasted was vastly different from what other people tasted. I had lived long enough in Edenvale to know that being different wasn’t a good thing.
Unease began to slide into my gut, weighing it down heavier than last night’s supper.
“Doyouhear anything?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I hear nothing.”
I regretted asking—unease slipped into my belly.
“Okay. We came. We saw. We heard. Shall we go now?” I took a step, ready to go back.
Quick as a viper, Arkyn’s hand shot out, seizing my wrist. “We aren’t finished yet.”
“What are you doing?” I tried to pull away, but his strength was insurmountable—just as it had been when the leader of the raiders had his boot on Arkyn’s back, pressing him into the mud. I remembered that triumphant look on his face when I used my Water Curse. How easily he had gotten up from the ground. How quickly he’d slayed them all. Not an ounce of remorse visible.
But where had such strength come from? And why hadn’t he used it before when we first stepped out of the carriage? Questions by the dozens swirled around me, until two words cleared the static.
Deal’s off—that was what the leader of the raiders had said. The way he’d said it . . . he wasn’t talking tohis men—it was directed to Arkyn.
“What deal did you make with them?” I hissed, my tone pure venom. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“I needed to find out if you were Cursed or not and I knew you would never tell me on your own. I paid them to make it look like they were going to take my life. I knew you wouldn’t risk losing the information about your brother and if you did have the Curse, you would use it to save my life, and therefore the information you needed. I thought they might go back on the deal, and when they did, it just added to the theatrics of it all.”
All of that—it had just been for show. He’d paid them to rob us. The coachman had died because of it. Then Arkyn had taken their lives . . . He’d decapitated them.
Ice ran down my spine.
“Why . . . Why do all of that just to find out if I was Cursed?” Arkyn’s hold slackened and I tore my wrist free. I stepped back, anger and confusion driving my body, as if I had to move or I might risk exploding into a million pissed-off little pieces.
“It was necessary. It was a test, just as the Temple of Light was.”
“Have you finished your tests now?” I stared daggers at him. I was hurt by Arkyn’s betrayal. Somewhere, deep down, I had thought that we were becoming friends. The thought was laughable now.
He shook his head. “I have one left.”
And then he pushed me into the Endless Mist.
Iblinked. Not once, but twice—as if that were enough to clear the darkness from my sight.
It didn’t work.
I moved my hand in front of my face. I couldn’t see it—I couldn’t see anything. I swallowed down my fear, trying not to panic.
