Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

A woman holds scales, her face serene.

“Justice,” Sabine says. “She represents balance. A balanced mind, a logical heart. Things will come together for you soon. You’ll see things as they are.”

God, I hope.

She bends her head and her fingers move, and she comes back up with one last card.

It’s the dark skull.

The death card.

“What does that mean?” my voice is shaky, and I already know, of course.

She shakes her head. “It doesn’t always mean death, child. Sometimes, it just means a shift in the order of things, or a rebirth, even.”

“But sometimes… it just means death, right?”

My voice is small, and Sabine nods.

“And in this case?’

She shrugs. “I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.”

It’s not the answer I wanted.

I hesitate, but then my words come out before I can stop them.

“Do you know what happened to my uncle?”

Sabine stares at the table, without looking up.

“Do you know?” I ask gently.

“Just because you think you want the answer to something doesn’t mean you actually do,” she replies, her words a bit broken.

I stare her down.

She stares back, not intimidated. “Dare is a good boy,” she insists, although I never said otherwise. “And what he did… well, it had to be done. He was young and he paid the price. He never deserved it.”

But she won’t say more, and I’m not sure I want to know.

I drift out of her room,

Toward the stables.

I can’t be inside,

I can’t be contained.

My thoughts are my enemy because they think about things I don’t want to know.

I ask the groom to saddle Jupiter.

“Are you sure, Miss?” he looks at me, waiting for someone else to appear. “You want to ride alone?”

I nod. Of course I’m sure.

The breeze pushes my hair away from my face as I ride away from the house,