I pause for another moment, waiting this time for the price that Halle mentioned. She said it could be physical pain or mental anguish. I suppose I feel some mental anguish, but it’s no worse than what I was already experiencing…
I push on, choosing now to ask him a question concerning which I already know he lied to me. “Did you tether my mother’s magic?”
When I first asked him that question, he told me he hadn’t tethered her magic. It was his certainty that sent me into a spiral, questioning who my mother was and what had happened to her.
Now he has the chance to tell the truth and have it confirmed.
He tethered her magic. He just has to be honest about it.
He stops pacing and his eyes meet mine. His lips press together before his shoulders slump and his hair falls over his face.
Then, he says, “I did not tether her magic.”
Fury rushes through me that even now, he lies to me.
Even knowing that the room will call out his lie and proclaim the truth, still, he fuckinglies.
I fight the urge to launch myself to my feet, forcing myself to remain kneeling as I wait for the room to confirm his untruth.
The echo says, “I did not tether her magic.”
Wait… what?
The echo repeats, fading into a stony silence. “I did not tether her magic. I did not tether her magic…”
My eyes are wide.Is the room broken?
Or worse…
My heart sinks as I say, “You can beat the magic in this room, can’t you?”
His shoulders remain slumped, but he shakes his head emphatically. “I can’t.”
“I can’t,” says the echo, and then, despite confirming his statement, it says more. “I can’t defy the truth.”
He drops to one knee with a groan, pressing his fingers to his temples.
Unable to remain kneeling any longer, I lurch upright.
I dart toward him, stopping at the last moment before I would touch him. Our positions are now reversed. I am standing while he is kneeling.
“You ripped out my mother’s heart.”
“I did,” he says.
The echo whispers, “I ripped out her heart, and it hurt. It hurt…”
I take a step back, the corners of my mouth turning down, my teeth sharpening. “How dare it hurt you? She was my mother. She was all I had. And you killed her!”
“I did,” he says, his shoulder slumping further.
But then the echo says, “I did not.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
He… didn’t… kill her?
I’m certain I’ve misheard the echo, and for once, I actually wish it would repeat, but it doesn’t.
