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

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.”

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.