Bone Crier's Moon (Bone Grace #1)(103)

“Ailesse! Ailesse!” The words are nonsensical. They don’t sing the language of the gods. I can’t either, but I may learn.

My lashes bat slowly as I gaze past the dust into the blackness beyond. A hot breeze wafts to me from within and stirs the ends of my hair.

I take another step, lured to the dark call of Tyrus.





47


Bastien


“AILESSE!” I SHOUT AGAIN. MY heart pounds out of my chest. I stare down at her from the large rift I’ve blasted open. She’s over a hundred feet below me and dangerously close to the swirling dust door. A few more steps and she’ll be on the other side. “Get back, please!” She won’t look at me. Can she even hear me? The song in her head must have grown too loud.

A strange breeze ripples through her hair and dress. She drifts another step toward the entrance to the Underworld. What will happen if she crosses through? Will she die?

I can’t breathe. I don’t know what to do. There isn’t enough time for me to race down all the stairs and save her. “Ailesse, think! If you go in there, you can’t ever come back.” If none of the Chained can, that much has to be true. “You won’t see your famille ever again or your mother or your friend Sabine.” My voice cracks. “You won’t see me.”

She freezes. I can’t make out her expression, but her head turns, like she’s trying to reorient herself. Finally, her face lifts to me. I drop to my knees and lean over the rift. “Stay with me. Don’t look at the Gate again. Step away from it, and shut out the music. It’s meant for the dead. You’re not one of them.”

She’s still for a long moment. Then her hand covers her mouth. She quickly backtracks from the Gate.

The tension in my muscles releases. “Stay there!” I jump up to run for the hatch. But once I’m on my feet, I see a woman racing toward me.

Her speed is unnatural. One of the dead, I think. But I can’t see the dead. I catch sight of her crown of bones. Odiva. My fingers flinch at the hilt of my father’s knife. It’s not too late to avenge him.

But could Ailesse forgive me?

“What is happening?” Odiva glances at the destroyed earth. “Chazoure is flooding here from everywhere.”

“Chazoure?” I repeat.

“I followed the dead, you impudent boy,” she snaps. “Ailesse—where is she?” Before I can answer, Odiva pushes me aside and stares down into the blasted rift. “A second soul bridge,” she gasps.

I look with her and suck in a sharp breath. Ailesse is spinning and kicking at the air. Merde. Another Chained.

I can’t think about revenge right now. I bolt for the hatch.

When I’m eight feet away, I collide with an invisible force. A man’s voice growls and hurls me aside. I grunt as I hit the ground. His footsteps race toward the rift.

Odiva’s black eyes narrow on me. A cunning grin spreads across her face.

What game is she playing? I spring to my feet and whip out my knife. “Aren’t you going to help?” I run after the soul, blindly slashing the air. “He’s going to jump through the rift.”

“They are going to jump, you mean.”

“Ailesse can’t ferry three Chained at once!”

“Any Ferrier worth her bones can.”

I keep attacking and striking nothing, racing toward her along the edge of the rift. I’m about to rush past when her hand flashes out and grabs my wrist. She yanks me close. The knife in my hand shakes as I try to pull away. Her grip is too strong.

“You can stop writhing about, Bastien,” she says coolly. “All the Chained are with her now.”

I look down through the rift. Ailesse moves twice as fast as before. The skirt of her green dress flares as she whirls, punches, and kicks. Nothing breaks her concentration, not even the lure of the Underworld.

Odiva drags me an inch closer. Her breath heats my face. “Do you love my daughter?”

My jaw locks. I’m sure about my feelings for Ailesse, but I don’t know how Odiva will react. “Yes.”

“And she loves you?”

I swallow. “Yes. She doesn’t want to kill me anymore.”

The corner of Odiva’s lip curls. “She won’t have a choice in the end.”

Ailesse does have a choice. So do I. I’ve chosen her. Together, we’ll find a way to survive the curse of our soul-bond. I broaden my chest. “Let me go. Let us have this year.”

Odiva doesn’t reply. She glances down at the rift again, and her raven brow arches. “She ferried them.”

I look to see for myself.

Ailesse is standing still in the middle of the bridge, her body turned from the Gate of dust.

I blow out a sigh, but my relief comes too soon. Ailesse glances over her shoulder. And revolves. She faces the Gate.

No, no, no.

“Ailesse!” I shout. “Don’t listen to the song!”

Odiva’s mouth parts in shock. “No, Tyrus,” she says under her breath. “Not like this.”

Ailesse starts slipping toward the Gate. I desperately struggle against Odiva. “Ailesse, look at me! Please! Remember what I told you—you don’t belong with the dead.”

“She won’t heed you,” Odiva says. “The call of the Underworld is too powerful. If she had completed her rite of passage, she would have learned to resist what she desires.”