Fae by Emily White Read Free Book Online

eyebrow,
waiting.
    I decided I just needed to
do it. "I didn't forget you on Sho'ful. "
    He leaned back in his
chair looking almost like he'd been slapped. "What?"
    I wiped my sweaty palms
against the silky folds of my dress--which didn't help much--and
tried to breathe away the prickle growing in my throat.
"I...uh...well, I forgot most of it, but I remembered this one day.
We were rolling in the grass, you looked down at me and whispered
my name."
    His face morphed from
slapped to stunned, and finally amused. He leaned forward and
rested his elbows on his knees. I tried to stay focused and not
notice the way his shoulders curved toward me, the way the mounds
on his back looked so soft, so ready to be touched.
    "Huh," he said. "That's
nice to know."
    "That's all you have to
say?"
    "I've been convinced these
past few weeks that I've pined for you for ten years, fighting,
sweating, and breathing your existence while you'd forgotten
everything about me." His gaze darkened. "Honestly, I felt like
crap, so yeah it's nice to know.
    Something dark and
sinister started chuckling inside my mind before I had a chance to
process what he'd just admitted. "Oh, how
sweet. We're all just this big, happy family."
    Go away! I imagined screaming at Malik, tearing him to
pieces by the sheer power of my voice alone. Sweat blossomed on my
temple and my fists clenched at my sides.
    "And I hear a voice in my
head," I blurted out through gritted teeth before I could stop
myself.
     

Chapter Five
    Movement
     
    "You what?"
    I covered my face with my
hands. Horror washed through me. I wanted to be anywhere but
there.
    "Ella. What did you say?"
His words came out forced, punctuated. This was leader Cailen; the
one who was used to being answered. Except I didn't have to answer
him. He couldn't order me around.
    "I didn’t say
anything."
    "Lies, lies. Always
telling lies."
    Shut up, Malik.
    His voice and presence
seeped away, his fading chuckles echoing around my
skull.
    I heard Cailen stand up
and push his chair across the floor to the other side of the room.
He came and pried my hands from my face and gently pulled me to my
feet. "We need to see Ranen," he said.
    "What? Why?"
    Cailen stood at the
doorway, his hand hovering just above the blue lit screen, waiting
for me. "Because apparently we're not done with this."
    "Done with
what?"
    "The prophecy." He winced
like it hurt him just to say it, but he soon recovered and held his
hand out to me. I climbed off the bed and took it.
    "How do you
know?"
    His voice dropped.
"Because after you were taken and I had your locket, I knew I had
to know more about the prophecy of the Destructor. There were many
different versions, but more than one said, 'The voice from the
broken abyss will carve the path.'"
    I repeated the words under
my breath. Very little of it made any sense at all. "Broken abyss?
Carve the path? What does that even mean?"
    "I don't know," he said.
"But if you're hearing a voice, that means we need to talk to
Ranen."
    I let him lead me out of
his room and through the maze of The Block. Wherever we walked, the
walls throbbed with whispers and dark glances. Unfortunately, we'd
left just at the beginning of a shift change. But since no one was
heading in the direction of the Royal Wing except us, we found
ourselves in empty corridors once we passed the dining facility and
gaming rooms.
    Unlike the section that
housed the door to the outside, I'd been in this part of The Block
before. I'd come a few times to talk to Ranen, but he never wanted
to see me. I'd heard some whispers that no one came in or out of
the Royal Wing anymore. No one except the Emperor's First Servant,
whoever he was.
    As we neared the Royal
Wing, sensors buzzed by our heads and scanned us. The silver walls
blazed red. A warning. Anyone else would have taken the hint that
they'd gone in the wrong direction and turned around. Both Cailen
and I pushed ahead.
    Just as we rounded the
last corner and the red-plumed Ladeshian guards