Bone Crier's Moon (Bone Grace #1)(104)

My throat closes. I can’t draw any air. I have to get away from Odiva. I might still have a chance to reach Ailesse in time. I’ll pull her back from the Gate myself.

“Let me go, Bone Crier,” I sneer. “We both know you won’t kill me.”

Odiva gives me a thin smile. “You forget I have the graces of five deadly creatures. I am devious, as well as resourceful.” My pulse races as her eyes lower to my father’s knife, then lift back to me. “The question is how much should I value your life?”





48


Ailesse


THE WHIRLING BLACK HOLDS ME in a tight embrace. Every inch of my skin prickles with heat. It’s more wonderful than anything I’ve ever felt, even being wrapped in Bastien’s arms.

I’m twenty feet away from the Gate of dust. I shake as I slip another five feet closer. I need to stop. I shouldn’t go to the Underworld. It would mean my death.

Another rush of heat shivers through me. I close my eyes. I never want this feeling to end. The pull from the Underworld lifts me to my toes and makes them step forward. When I look again, I’m ten feet away. So close . . .

Too close.

I grit my teeth. Clench the ground with my feet. Tyrus’s siren song throbs through all my muscles and bones. “I’m not as weak as you think,” I tell him.

A drumbeat joins the music and pounds faster and faster. My pulse dances with it. All my nerve endings tingle. The song blares, races. I want it louder, blazing.

My chest lurches forward. I trip seven steps closer to the Gate. I’m three feet away now.

“No!” I hold my muscles rigid. “I don’t want to die.”

The lure builds into a fierce riptide no grace bone can give me strength to resist.

You have done enough, Ailesse, Tyrus sings without words, but my soul understands. Come where your talent will be honored, where I will appreciate your Light.

Ailesse, I need you! The sound of another voice startles me. It’s beautiful and rich. Somehow I know it.

I glance at Elara’s sheer and silvery Gate—just to the right of Tyrus’s Gate—but when the voice calls again, it doesn’t resonate from within her realm.

You have always wanted to be a Ferrier. Do not disappoint me!

It’s coming from behind me. I start to look when Tyrus asks, Is ferrying what you truly desired all your life? Or did you only wish to ascend the soul bridge to come closer to my kingdom? Now you can touch it for yourself. You can live here, Ailesse.

Turn around!

Let go and come to me.

Tears of exertion blur my eyes. I’m torn between staying and going. The force of Tyrus’s power channels into every space of my body. He wants me more. He can have me.

My head tips back in surrender.

I let go.

Something grips my arm. I can’t move. The black dust has nearly enveloped me, but I’m held back. My blood burns. I’ll kill whoever is—

I’m spun around. I’m staring into wide chazoure eyes. A girl without chains. “The boy says you don’t belong there.” Her voice is different from the others in my head. “And the beautiful lady says she can’t fight all the Chained without you.”

My brow furrows. Only some of her words make sense. I look past her.

In the middle of the soul bridge, someone in a midnight-blue dress and wearing majestic grace bones twirls and lashes, fighting four Chained at once. I gasp. “Mother!”

She can’t look at me with all the dead surrounding her and more coming, but the tense line of her shoulders eases. “Take this one, Ailesse!” she calls. She strikes the flat of her palm into the man in front of her. He’s thrown right at me. My mother’s aim is exact.

Fierce instinct takes hold of me. Tyrus’s siren song breaks. The Unchained girl lets go and passes through Elara’s Gate. I rush toward the dead man.

I kick out his legs before he lands. He crashes to his knees. I haul him up and drive him backward to the Gate with unrelenting blows. I even gouge his eyes. He doesn’t have a chance to fight back. My mother is here. I grin, even as the dead man curses me. She came to help. She didn’t allow me to die. She cares about me.

Warmth radiates through my chest. All my life I’ve dreamed of ferrying beside her, working together in perfect unison. That moment is here. Part of me wants the world to stand still so I can drink it in. But the stronger part—the part of me that’s really my mother’s daughter—won’t stop to be sentimental. I fight the dead harder than ever.

I grab the man by the back of his chazoure tunic. I’m near the vortex of black dust now. I have to be quick. The Chained thrashes like a wildcat, but my grip is as strong as my tiger shark’s jaws. I don’t let go until I hurl him through the Gate. He cries out as the dust cloaks him from sight.

I hover nearby, staring at the spinning darkness. Tyrus’s siren song returns and pounds through my head. It’s not too late, Ailesse. Come to me. I will not punish you. I will share my bounty.

I square my jaw. I won’t listen.

I run the other way. Too many souls swarm the ledge and bridge. They spider-crawl through the rift above and drop from the mine shaft. I rapidly scan the cavern for Bastien, but I can’t see anything beyond streaks of chazoure.

Ten feet later, two more Chained confront me. I smirk and motion them forward. I attack with more vigor, but I still don’t match my mother’s talent. She’s fighting five souls now. She doesn’t even have a staff. My nostrils flare.