The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch #3)(35)

It’s not submitting to me, Fox!

Keep an eye on Kalen and the others, and make sure they don’t get too close was Fox’s reply as he swung his sword the instant the creature reemerged from its grotesque cocoon. The blade bit through an extended arm, hacking it off at the elbow. The creature wailed and retreated. “Kalen, the wings might be impenetrable, but the rest of it isn’t!”

“How are we gonna hit it if it keeps cheating?” Mavren demanded.

“I have an idea.”

Don’t you dare, Fox! I screeched.

You’ll fix me up once we’re back, right?

The creature’s wings lifted again, but this time Fox slid nimbly into the small opening it presented, disappearing from view as the wings snapped back into place around him. Almost at the same time, I felt the Veiling rune between us flare to life. The wall was up before I could stop him.

Fox! I hammered at the barrier he had created. Fox!

There was no answer, but in his haste, the link between us had not been entirely broken. I could still feel him, despite his detaching me from his mind. I could feel him being stabbed with those hooks, yet I felt none of the pain. I could do nothing but watch as the creature’s remaining pincer and beaks began to eviscerate Fox everywhere they could reach. It was a horrible violation to feel no agony even as it tried to kill my brother.

Fox angled his sword and thrust. The blade plunged straight into the creature’s head, coming out the back of its skull—

—Fox was shredded from the inside out. His screams told me he could suddenly feel pain, that he had somehow became human in that split second, only to suffer a grisly death. But the blighted monster was gone, and I had taken his place, my hands winnowing through his insides. Fox’s blood soaked my hands, and he collapsed, a mangled unidentifiable blob of blood and bones, and I began to scream—

The creature made one last feeble cry, and its wings retracted. The blighted monster went still on the ground, blood seeping from its head and puddling in a slippery black. Fox blinked against the bright light in full view of the others.

On anyone else, the pincers would have been fatal. One deep laceration had nearly bisected Fox, and one beak had sunk into his neck, leaving a gaping hole. He was streaked in deep cuts, one hand ripped to shreds. Some of the Deathseekers, fierce warriors who had seen their share of battles, blanched as they looked at him, their faces turning white.

I clasped my head, breathing hard. The false vision of Fox had seemed real…

“Need help?” Kalen asked my brother quietly, face guarded.

My brother shook his head. “Sorry. I know you wanted to bring him back alive if possible…”

“I don’t think we had a choice. I knew it wasn’t likely when I saw the full extent of its abilities.” Kalen glanced down at the corpse on the ground. “We’ll bring back the body. Levi’s our priority.”

“That was some hardcore fighting, Fox,” Ostry said with admiration, despite being green around the gills. “Rather painful though?”

“For it, maybe.” Tea? Are you there? Tea?

I couldn’t reply. In my mind’s eye, I still saw his fallen body, his lifeless, dissected form. I did that. I killed him. I killed him, echoed through my head.

Tea? Tea?

I killed you.

? ? ?

“You didn’t kill me,” Fox said once they’d returned. I was tending to his wounds, the wards modified so I could draw on Bloodletting and watch his flesh slowly knit back together. Even seeing him made whole again couldn’t shake the nightmare from my mind.

“Then why do I keep having these visions?” I demanded bitterly. “Am I going crazy?”

“Is it because you were in my head before I fought the blighted? You’ve never done that before. Not while I was being… Well.” He looked pained.

“Maybe.” I gulped in air. “And it’s the first time you fought a daeva-like creature without me in control.”

“I know. It won’t happen next time. I’ll boot you out of my head—”

“Next time? Fox, are you hearing yourself? Next time? Is this how you really want to live? Is this how you want to come home to Inessa, looking like you’ve been tortured and left for dead? What’s next time going to look like? What body parts will you be missing? Your head? I’m sure Inessa would love that.”

“You leave her out of this, Tea!” my brother fired back. “I don’t have much choice!”

“Maybe you should! Maybe we should have found a better way to live instead of me putting you back together all the time!”

Fox quieted. “There isn’t a better way, Tea.”

“What if there was?”

“What?”

“The book we found in Istera for starters. It said that we weren’t intended to have these abilities, that no one should have been an asha or a Deathseeker to begin with.”

“Hollow Knife was a trickster.”

“And so was Blade that Soars!”

“You know the real problem? It’s that damned heartsglass of yours! It’s darkrot, Tea. You’re so stubborn thinking you can control it! We have to tell Mykkie, or it’ll be too late!”

“You promised me more time!” I yelled back. “It’s my decision! Not yours!”