Obsidian and Stars (Ivory and Bone #2)(34)

My words rattle in the air. Despite my calm tone, inside my gut something kicks and writhes, like a beetle on its back that can’t right itself.

“It was a bear,” Kol says. “I guess it got the best of me.” Kol says this as if it’s a joke—as if we are meant to laugh. But Chev’s frown deepens.

And my anger soars.

“I can take care of Kol,” I say. “There’s a girl on this island who will know how to treat his wounds. I’ll take him to her.”

“What girl? Do you mean Lees? Because I know you brought her here.” Chev gets to his feet and slides an arm around Kol’s back, under his arms. He draws him to his feet.

Bile rises in my throat as I form the words I want to spit at him—that it is his fault Kol is here in the first place . . . that if he hadn’t meddled in his sisters’ lives, none of this would be happening. But then Kol shrugs off Chev’s arm and stands on his own.

“I’m fine,” he says. “It’s a head wound. Head wounds bleed, but I swear I’m fine.” Kol turns to me. Blood still trickles along his forehead, but it does seem to be slowing. A smile spreads across his face like the sun on a cloudless day. It’s a smile that could melt me. It always does. “I’m here with you. I’m all right.”

And though the anger still burns in my throat, though I still taste it on my tongue, I force myself to let it go. Kol’s eyes glow with the warmth of the meadow, and I let my anger float away on the breeze, as insubstantial as smoke.

Kol is here. He is right in front of me. What use do I have for anger now? If he brought Chev here, there must be a reason. And the light in his eyes tells me the reason must be something good. As my anger abates, curiosity takes its place.

“Why—” I start, but my question is interrupted by the sound of feet on the trail below. Before I can look down over the ledge, I hear a voice.

Seeri’s voice.

She calls and waves two spears—both bloody—Kol’s and mine. “I found these spears in a bear!” Before I can grab hold of his arm to help, Kol is sliding over the ledge and scrambling down the face of the cliff to join her. She tosses him his spear as if she’s playing with him—as if she is challenging him to a throwing contest—but I notice her disheveled braid, the hem of her tunic, her own spear—all stained red with blood.

Chev and I follow Kol over the ledge, dropping down onto the trail beside him. Though my palms scrape a bit on the rock, sliding down is much easier than climbing up. Seeri is waiting for me on the path. She hands me my spear. “I’d embrace you,” she says, “but I should wait until I’m a little less bloody.”

“You’ve killed it then?” Kol asks Seeri. It seems so obvious, so simple, as if he were saying, “You’ve gathered the roots,” or “You’ve filled the waterskins.”

“She didn’t do it alone.” A voice—a boy’s voice—calls from farther back on the trail. Pek comes around a turn and Kol smiles.

“Then why is your spear the only one still clean?” he asks.

“Someone had to lure the bear to Seeri—”

“And then run away,” she adds.

“I wasn’t running away. I was getting clear so you could take the shot.” His tone is light, with only a touch of defensiveness or maybe wounded feelings running along the edge of his words. But then Seeri laughs and it’s clear she’s just teasing him. Pek laughs, too, and all at once I feel the relief of knowing that the bear cannot threaten us anymore. My family is safe. There may be other bears on this island, of course, but the one that injured Kol will not be a danger to him anymore.

Not Kol. Not Seeri. Not Lees or Noni.

“The girls,” I say. “Lees and Noni—”

“Noni?” Chev asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

“I left them sleeping—”

“We saw your camp on the beach,” Kol says. “But we saw you heading up the trail to the cliff. We assumed you and Lees were together, so we followed.”

“When we couldn’t find you right away, we split up,” says Seeri. “Kol was lucky enough to find you—and the bear—before the rest of us.”

I want to scold Seeri for making light of the bear attack, but Kol smiles. “Seeri and Pek are not leaving me alone again,” he teases. “I’ll take them with me to check on the girls. You take a little time to talk to your brother.”

Kol says these words in the same offhand way he spoke of the dead bear. But I know these words are bigger than that. Kol can play down the significance of what I need to talk to my brother about, but it doesn’t change anything. This conversation will have an impact on the future of both clans. We all know that.

I walk to Kol’s side, brushing his hair from his forehead, looking for the wound he got from the bear. He steps back, out of my reach, and smooths his hair back down. “It’s healing,” he says, but I notice my hand is smeared with blood where I touched him. I show the red streaks to Kol. “Head wounds bleed, Mya. I feel fine.” He winks, as if that proves something.

“When you get to Lees, show that wound to Noni, the girl who’s with her. She’ll know how to dress it.”

One corner of Kol’s mouth curls up. “Don’t worry about me—”