Page 105 of The City Of Fractured Memory

When my voice is lost and I can’t scream anymore, I slump my shoulders, panting heavily, angrily scrubbing the tears from my face. I turn back to Riven, and I startle when I realise he hasn’t moved an inch the entire time. He’s still on his knees, one hand on Starling’s lifeless body, face pale, eyes unseeing.

Tears of a different kind start to fall down my face.

What am I doing?

He’s just lost his only friend—and I’m fairly sure it’s all my fault—and yet I’m standing here having a very public meltdown about my own issues while the world burns at my back.

I fall back to my knees beside him and pull him away from Starling, holding him tightly in my arms. He numbly lets me embrace him and I choke back a sob.

“I’m so sorry, this is all my fault,” I gasp, clutching him tight. He pulls back and grabs my face with both hands, forcing me to look into his bloodshot eyes.

“His blood is on their hands,” he says with a rasp, his mouth set in a grim line. “And we are going to make them pay.”

I nod fiercely, a sense of purpose settling onto my shoulders as I match his determined stare and place my hands over his. “Gods help me, I will cut down anyone who stands in our way.”

He gives me a small smile, but it drops as his gaze snaps up over my shoulder. For a moment, I think he can sense my Shadow again, but as a very real shadow falls across us I turn and find a towering man standing behind me, silhouetted by the flames.

“That’s big talk for someone whose days are numbered,” Xavier growls, staring down at us both in disgust.

I shrink back and Riven wraps his arms round me protectively, pulling me tight against his chest.

“Is that a threat brother?” he snarls, gripping me tightly. “Because if you even think about harming her, there is nothing in this world that will save you from me. If you lay so much as a shadow on her, I will become the nightmare that hunts you until your last breath. I will tear this world apart to reach you. There won’t be a corner of existence left for you to hide in. No law, realm, nor God will shield you from the ruin I will unleash.”

I inhale sharply.

Xavier laughs cruelly.

The man I considered my friend is no longer there. What stands in his place is a mere husk of his former self, all his light replaced by cloying darkness, and I don’t think it’s caused by Riven’s curse.

Some wardens shout out, but I can’t hear them over the roaring flames. Xavier shouts commands back at them and they disperse.

“Xavier,” I choke out, my voice shaking. “What are you doing?”

He sneers at me, all traces of our life-long friendship seemingly gone. “I told you before. You’ve made your choice, now I’m making mine.”

The blood drains from my face. “What do you mean?”

Another warden trips as he approaches us, shouting desperately as he spots Starling’s corpse. “The Chief! He’s—he’s–” He swallows hard. “What do we do? Who’s next in command?”

Xavier doesn’t break my gaze as he responds. “I am.”

The warden pales. “Sir, the seers, your sister…their bodies are gone. The morgue is empty.”

Horror leaches through me, but Xavier doesn’t even flinch at the worrisome news, like he didn’t even hear it. I glare back at him and my stomach hollows out as it dawns on me what he’s about to do.

And I’m powerless to stop it.

With the Chief no longer in his way, there’s nothing to stop him–

“Rivenéan Ashfell, you are under arrest for murder. And Octavia Wren, you are under arrest for obstruction of justice and accomplice to murder.” He stares at us with utter contempt as he gestures for the closest wardens to apprehend us.

“Seize them.”

Forty-Three

“What do we do?” I whisper out of the corner of my mouth as we both slowly back away from the wardens, hands raised in surrender. Riven wordlessly curls a hand into a fist and I inhale sharply, grabbing his hand and forcing it back down to his side.

“Are you seriously considering using magic in front of a load of wardens?” I hiss, my eyes darting between him and our captors, Xavier watching on numbly.