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

I grab one of his arms. With all my strength, I swing him backward over my head and let go.

The momentum casts him through the Gate. Black dust sucks him inside.

A dizzying breath of relief purges from my chest. I break into an exultant smile. The monster is gone.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” someone whispers. I startle and whirl behind me. An Unchained young woman is on the bridge. She wears a brocade dress and a jeweled diadem. She drifts closer, tears flowing down her face. Her eyes are fixated on the near-invisible shimmer of Elara’s Gate. “But I don’t want to go,” she tells me. “Please, don’t make me go.”

I touch her chazoure-glowing arm. “You’ll be with loved ones who have passed on before you.

They’ll sing to you and ease your worries. They’ll build you a castle made of silver and Light.”

The young woman painstakingly pulls her focus from the Gate to me. “Will my mother be there?”

“Was your mother good?”

“She sacrificed everything for me.”

“Then she will be waiting to embrace you.”

The young woman gives me a trembling smile, but doesn’t move forward.

“Listen closer to that beautiful song,” I say, directing her to Elara’s descant, the only siren song that an Unchained can hear from the Beyond. “It’s meant to give you peace. Trust that feeling.”

More tears streak down her face as she nods and inhales a deep breath. She wanders past me toward the shimmering Gate without any more reassurance.

“Ailesse, can you hear me?” Bastien yells, but the sound fades in my ears. It’s eclipsed by the rising swell of the other siren song—Tyrus’s song. Only the Leurress can hear both parts of the music.

Tyrus’s dark and distinctive melody pulses from the Gate of dust and swallows the descant from Elara’s Gate. The music almost has a masculine voice. I feel it murmur, Cross over to me, Ailesse. See my wonders. Nothing in your world compares to mine.

The Unchained woman’s dress trails behind her as she steps across the threshold of Elara’s Gate. Her chazoure body transforms into silver, and then she’s nothing more than a translucent sheen twirling up the staircase to Paradise. It’s breathtaking. But my eyes drift back to the churning black dust. I can’t see anything past it, not even the stone wall.

I’ve been told a scathing river courses through Tyrus’s realm. It boils the flesh off of sinners and runs red with their blood. The river parches dry when it reaches the Perpetual Sands, where those who murdered in life without the sanction of the gods may never quench their thirst. Past the desert, oath breakers and cowards are dragged by their chains to the Furnace of Justice, where they burn forever in an eternal fire. The ashes and smoke are said to form the great cape Tyrus wears around his shoulders.

The dark melody grows louder and quickens to the rhythm of my pounding heartbeat. My realm is just as beautiful as Elara’s, the masculine voice whispers . You could withstand my river. I would build you a barge of gold. I would shower you with water in my desert. The flames in my furnace would not burn your skin. They would bathe you in divine heat.

My stomach quivers. Would Tyrus really keep me safe? He protected me when the ceiling shattered. I wasn’t crushed. I didn’t fall off the bridge either. My feet glide forward and bring me closer to the glittering dust. But what if he’s lying? I stretch out my hand. An unshakable desire urges me to find out.

“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.