The Empire of Dreams (Fire and Thorns #4) - Rae Carson Page 0,2

she absolutely remembers the monster peering at her strangely and saying, “You have an old soul.”

She glared. “I’m precocious.”

He stepped forward, quick like an asp, into the very air she was breathing. But she did not back away.

The monster said, “Tell me what happened to your anima-lapis.”

The girl had no idea what that meant, though it sounded like the Lengua Classica, which she did not speak and did not care to. She shrugged.

The blow came so fast she barely noted it, except suddenly she was on the floor, blackness edging her vision, wet warmth spilling into her drawers. Pain came next, exploding through her cheekbone and her shoulder where she fell. Though she hadn’t eaten all day, her belly threatened to toss something up. She blinked and blinked, trying to see straight, as her heartbeat pounded like thunder in her face.

A shape materialized on the floor at her nose: a limp hand.

“I’m sorry, Mamá, I’m sorry,” the girl whispered to the hand. “I peed myself.”

The monster grabbed the girl’s braid and yanked her head backward. He crouched beside her, his moist breath hot in her ear. “Tell me where it is,” he whispered.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t know what animal apples is,” she said. “For true.”

“Anima-lapis,” he said, with a tug on her braid. “It would look like this.” He grabbed his amulet and shoved it in her face. The gemstone winked at her from inside its iron cage.

She shook her head, or maybe she just thought she did. Everything was spinning so badly. “I don’t . . . I’ve never . . .”

She’d never seen a sparkle stone until today. Horte?o the blacksmith had told her about them. The stones were magical, beautiful, rare. Only animagi were born with them, though she wasn’t sure how a baby could be born with a stone. She’d seen quite a few babies in her short life, and they were messy and soft and loud; not stone-like at all.

He released her braid, and her head clunked against the floor.

Run, she told herself. But her vision was hazy, and her limbs wouldn’t obey. Maybe in a minute or so. She just needed to blink a little, catch her breath.

Before she could collect herself, he flipped her neatly onto her back and yanked up her shirt.

She tried to cover herself, but he batted her hands away and bent over her stomach to examine something there. A light finger traced the edge of her navel. It was almost a caress.

“Hmmm,” the monster said.

The girl squirmed, but he had her pinned.

“Maybe,” he said, softly to himself. “Maybe.”

In a way, it was worse than getting hit, having his soft finger glide across her bare belly. It sent shivers all through her and made bile rise in her throat. She wanted to cover her skin so badly. Wash it. Reclaim it.

“All right, let’s go,” the monster said, gaining his feet and yanking her up with him. “We have a long journey ahead of us.”

She pushed her shirt down as fast as she could, wobbling on her feet. Her pee-soaked pants already chafed the skin of her inner thighs. “Are you going to kill me now?” she asked. She needed a weapon. The meat knife would be perfect, but there was no way she’d find it in all this rubble.

“Not yet,” he said with a shrug. “If we find your lapis, you might be with us for a very, very long time.”

Being with him a very, very long time was probably a very, very bad thing. But it also meant she might live long enough to escape.

She said, “You should look in the cellar. Mamá keeps things there.” She didn’t look him in the eye when she said it, because she was terrible at tricking people, and he’d surely read her intentions on her face.

A long moment passed. If the monster was smart, he’d tie her up and explore the cellar himself, and she couldn’t let that happen.

So she added, “Mamá has a secret place down there. I can show you.”

That decided him. “You go first. I’ll be right behind you.” The sparkle stone dangling at his chest began to glow, and its anger stirred deep in her soul. It made her insides fuzzy and hot. The monster was preparing to use his awful magic.

The girl moved fast, practically throwing herself into the hole. She was still dizzy from the blow to her head, so her foot missed the first rung and she slid halfway down before catching