Farin doesn’t respond, and though I can sense the shuffle of Zora’s feet as she searches for vines, I get the feeling Farin has hardly moved since walking out of sight.
“Farin?” I call upward. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be keen to rescue me, though I suppose you could brag about it to Bl—”
I cut myself off, a dreadful thought interrupting my line of thinking.
“You know, I was thinking,” says Farin, and though I can no longer see him, his voice echoes down into the pit. “If vampirism is a curse that’s tied to one’s body and not one’s soul, perhaps there are other curses that work similarly.”
“Again,” I say, “something I’d be more than happy to have an internal debate with you about once we’re peacefully stuck in the same body once more.”
“What?” Zora starts, almost dropping her stick.
Farin chuckles, the sound of which has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Because something has occurred to me, and I can only hope that it hasn’t occurred to Farin too.
“I don’t see why we can’t discuss it now. In fact, I believe I already possess evidence for my theory. Don’t you want to hear the evidence, Nox?”
Okay, he’s definitely thought of it.
“You’re starting to sound like your mother, you know.” It’s taking every ounce of control in my body to keep my voice from trembling. If Zora can just hurry up and toss down a vine, maybe I can get out of here. But there’s no way of warning her without calling attention to the problem myself.
“Would either of you care to explain what you’re talking about?” Zora asks.
“Oh, I was just explaining to your brother a theory of mine. But he doesn’t seem inclined to listen to the evidence.”
No, no, no. “Zora, can you—”
“You see, something your brother said got me curious. If his curse isn’t bound to his soul, but his body, could the same apply to other curses as well?”
“Curses like?”
“For instance, this is probably unfamiliar to you, having grown up in these lands—though I’m not sure you’ve been entirely honest with Nox about how much you remember of your other lives—but in the realm from which we originate, the fae are cursed with the inability to lie. For most, this curse is a minor inconvenience, but for the oldest of our kind, it’s quite dreadful indeed. It can even cause death—the swift sort.”
I grind out my sister’s name. “Zora.”
She makes to let down a vine, but Farin grabs it and yanks it back, sending her stumbling backward.
“I don’t think you want to test your theory, Farin. There’s no way for you to confirm it without risking your own life.”
Farin shakes his head. “That’s not true at all. Because it seems your sister has already lied to us, when she claimed it was difficult for her to find words in our language. If the fae curse followed her here, she wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
“There’s a flaw in your logic, though,” I say, panicking and scrambling for anything to turn Farin’s course. “It’s true that the curses don’t reach us in this realm, but that doesn’t mean they won’t apply once we return. I can guarantee you I’m still a vampire back home, and that Zora’s still afflicted with the fae curse. You know if you go back, you still won’t be able to lie without triggering the curse. Meaning, if you hurt me, you’ll have no way of hiding it from Blaise.”
Farin pauses for a moment, looking thoughtful. Zora shifts on her feet behind him, clearly unsure of what to do, like she’s worried moving too quickly might cause him to strike.
“I’m not sure that’s true,” he finally says. “I’ve already proven the fae curse no longer binds me. I’m sure you know that I’m not at all happy to help you, as I claimed.”
I grit my teeth, irritated that Farin is too dull to get my point. There’s no use making an intelligent argument with someone who is unable to follow it. “We’ve already been over this. Just because it didn’t follow you here—”
“Doesn’t mean it won’t affect me over there, yes, yes. But here’s the thing, Nox. We’ve already proven the curses bind themselves to our bodies, not our souls. And I’m not going back to my body, am I?”
One second, his words strike me to my core, and I’m frozen.
The next, I’m darting to the side.
It’s a good thing I do, because the broken shaft of a branch pierces into the ground, where I was just standing.
Zora lets out a scream, then covers her mouth with her hands like she’s surprised at herself for letting her concern for my safety slip out.
“Zora, run,” I yell.
She takes one last look at me, then she does.
“Well, that’s a pity. I suppose your blood connection doesn’t run quite as thick through the Fabric, either, does it?” Farin asks, twirling another stick in his hand. He breaks it over his knee and hurls it at me.
I duck to the side, and it lodges in the pit wall where my head just was.
“Farin, think about this,” I say, holding my palms out. “Blaise is too smart for you to trick. If you kill me, she’ll know.”
He quirks a smile, and I get the wretched feeling he’s already thought of this. “I could always pretend to be you, you know.”
My blood runs cold.
“She told me once that she would have preferred that. That it would have been a mercy if I’d lied to her, let her believe that I was you. I can’t imagine why that would have changed.”
The worst part is that he’s not lying. I remember each and every word.
My head is spinning, but I can’t let him taunt me, not if I want to make it out of this alive. “She’ll probably see you do it in the tapestry. She’ll see me die, and she’ll know you’re not me.”
