Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

Just breathe.

“Why did you lock me in?” I asked without turning back.

“Because I’ve been coming here every day looking for you since the day you put the Nightwalkers in their places.”

I closed my eyes. All I wanted was to get enough shit so I could go back and play with Mark. They would send guards any day now, any second. Being here, talking,arguing, it was wasting time. “Well, I have to go, so it’ll have to be another day.”

Silence followed and then a snap.

I opened my eyes just as the red sparks lit up the doorknob, but as I reached for it, Talaroe said, “You remember the attack on the square that day yet no one else seems to.”

I stopped, hand on the doorknob, heart beating steadily.

“Just leave,”that rational voice whispered.“Go be with Mark, please.”

But it was a question that had been tickling my thoughts ever since that very day. Why did no one else remember? Why would Evanora make them all forget if her goal was to strike fear into the world? WhydidI remember?

Shit.

I turned to him, straightening. “And? You saw who I was with, maybe he helped me not forget.” A blatant lie, but maybe he would believe me.

“I also noticed how my magic failed as soon as I crossed over to that side.”

I adjusted the grip on my bow as he tilted his top hat back. “I don’t know why you’d be stupid enough to go to that side after what they did to your people on those crosses.”

“I’m used to blending in with the humans,” he replied. “Why do you remember when they don’t?”

I took a deep breath, trying to silence my own demons for the first time in months. “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “Why can I see the street? Why did I decide to help a Fallen General? I don’t have your answers, Talaroe.”

“A certain wolf told me that you’re the girl with all the answers.”

I found Madam Levine’s eyes, only for her to busy herself wiping off the counter. I wished she would stop telling people that. “Not these ones. If you’re not going to tell me, I need to go.” With that, I turned on my heel and pushed out onto the sidewalk, snow falling gently from the grey skies.

Gods, Ihatedwinter.

“You don’t care to know the answer?” Talaroe asked, quickly joining my side.

I headed across the street. “Didn’t seem like you wanted to tell me.” Digory wouldn’t give me as great a deal, I only hoped he’d still work with me after the last time I was here.

“Are you curious to know about what’s happened in Sarivos?”

My interest grew, but I kept myself calm. “A war iscoming,” I replied, looking over. “Strange things are going to start happening everywhere, and since this one will be worse than the others, shorter than them too, I have no idea how any of us will survive. I’m trying to make the best out of it with what little time I have left before the witches enslave us to you people, so if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to enjoy my freedom before it’s stripped away from me.”

I wasn’t sure if that’s what she would do, but what else would the humans be good for after the war? We were perfect little slaves, and we were expendable. It didn’t seem like a huge leap to make.

“Us people?”

I stopped on the edge of the opposite sidewalk and turned to him, tired, the demons in my head screaming so loud, I could barely think. “Yes, you people. The Nightwalkers. The magic-users who have no ability to understand or take off their hatred-colored glasses. The Nightwalkers who have every right to hate the humans for what they have done, but don’t realize that just as not all warlocks are bad, not all humans are bad either.”

“Not all of us believe that,” he stated gently, not an ounce of malice in his eyes.

I straightened, unable to understand what he was saying. “Look around you, Talaroe,” I finally said, lifting my arms to either side only to drop them a moment later. “I’ve been coming here my entire life and I’ve only told two people in all those years. They know Ket, and Cole is a magic-user who would have ended up finding this place anyway after Tricksent him on his bullshit mission.

“I’ve kept the secret, risked my own life, paid what I needed to pay, traded,helpedthem. I’ve taken care of people Raphael has hung on those crosses, bought things with money I didn’t have just to ease their suffering, and I’m still seen as one of them? Why? Because I tried to stand up for a Fallen? Because I spoke a truth to people who wanted to live in their hatred and not have to admit to themselves that the world isn’t actually that terrible of a place?”

I shook my head, laughing this cold type of throaty laugh, my eyes burning from all of the emotions swirling in my stomach that I couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard I tried. “People need something to hate. People can’t survive without a seed of hatred, why? I don’t know. I really don’t. People can’t handle the thought that another species is equal to them. Someone always has to be worse, but you know what? EverysingleCourt has a murderer. Every Court has had a corrupt King or Queen. Every Court has had pointless wars and senseless killings. Every Court has darkness, but they all have light too.

“We wouldn’t have the plants without the Fae. We wouldn’t have some of the world’s most life-saving potions without the warlocks. We wouldn’t even know about some of the parasitic bugs that can hop species’, killing any and all of us without the help of the vampires. We wouldn’t know about some of the rare species of animals that live deep in the depths of this world without the wolves. We wouldn’t know true strength without the Fallen.