Bone Crier's Moon (Bone Grace, #1)(109)

My eyes find Ailesse. She’s already looking at me. Her face is red. She shakes from exertion.

My throat tightens. I don’t want her to see me die.

A frantic cry shudders through the air. “Stop!”

Someone’s on the ledge. Odiva, Ailesse, and I turn our heads.

A dark-haired girl. The witness from Castelpont.

A boy my age races out from the tunnel behind her. He jerks to a stop once he sees us, eyes round.

“Sabine,” Ailesse gasps without releasing any tension on the knife.

Sabine gives her a flash of a smile, then glares at Odiva. “You have the wrong boy.”

My mind freezes. I stare at her blankly.

The boy scrutinizes me. “That isn’t Ailesse’s abductor?” he asks.

Sabine doesn’t answer. She yanks him close, whips out another bone knife, and brings it to his neck. His lantern crashes to the ground. He struggles to break free, but his effort is just as pointless as mine.

“What are you doing?” he demands.

“Say another word, and I’ll kill you.” Her voice is cold and steady.

“Wrong boy?” Ailesse repeats Sabine’s words. “What are you talking about?”

Sabine prods the boy a step forward. “This is your amouré, Ailesse.”

“But you were my witness at Castelpont,” Ailesse replies. “You saw Bastien walk onto the bridge.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s your amouré,” Odiva says. She isn’t trying to drive the knife into my chest anymore, but she holds it there, resisting as Ailesse and I struggle to pull it away. “Any man could have stepped onto the bridge.”

Ailesse looks at her mother and Sabine like they’ve both gone mad. “But . . . Bastien came when I played the bone flute.”

“He wanted to kill you,” Sabine says.

“He was lured to me. I saw it in his eyes.”

Sabine shakes her head. “Any man would be smitten with you, Ailesse.”

My heart beats faster. I size up the man in Sabine’s clutches. Handsome. Clearly rich. But Ailesse’s soulmate? Impossible.

Or maybe not . . .

My gaze drifts to Ailesse’s auburn hair, tousled and wild from fighting. She’s breathtaking.

“It’s true,” I whisper.

Her eyes fill with hurt. “Why are you agreeing with them? That man isn’t my amouré. You are.

I don’t care what they say.”

“Isn’t this what we want?” I ask. I wish we could have this conversation in private, without a knife in the grip of our hands. “If we’re not soulmates, then death can’t hang over us. We can be together in peace.”

Ailesse falls quiet, searching my eyes. “But you’re the one meant for me. I’ll never love anyone else. Why would the gods—?” She tosses a scathing look over her shoulder at the only visible Gate.

“The gods have nothing to do with us.” All I want is to hold her and kiss her and convince her I’m right. “We don’t have to play their game.” Is she listening? She hasn’t turned back to face me.

“How can you affirm this boy is Ailesse’s amouré?” Odiva asks Sabine. She’s already looking at him with more approval than me.

Sabine doesn’t answer. She stares between me and Ailesse in disbelief.

“Sabine,” Odiva says pointedly.

She blinks twice. Clears her throat. “Cas, he . . . he heard Ailesse’s song during the last full moon. He caught a glimpse of her as she was stolen away, and he’s been searching for her ever since. I found him at Castelpont tonight.”

Cas’s mouth parts like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t, not with Sabine’s knife at his throat. I take a harder look at him. He’s vaguely familiar. It doesn’t matter. I hate him. I don’t care that he’s done nothing wrong.

Odiva studies Sabine. Then, all at once, she releases her hold on the knife. Ailesse and I stumble backward and fall onto the bridge. I groan. My body can’t take another beating tonight. I reach over to help her to her feet, but she bats my hand away. Her eyes are latched on to the Gate.

She pulls up by herself.

Merde. Not again.

“Ailesse, wait!” I stand as she drifts toward it. “We’re free now. You can’t listen to—!”

A bright burst of pain strikes me in the back. A strangled cry rips out of me.

Ailesse finally spins around. Her eyes flare in shock. “Bastien!”

My legs give out. My body slams onto the bridge.

Ailesse is at my side the next instant. She falls to her knees and feels my back with shaking hands. “No, no, no . . . Bastien . . .” Hazily, I see her beautiful face. Tears pour down her cheeks.

She pulls her hands away. They’re covered in blood. My blood. She sobs harder. “Don’t go, Bastien.

Stay with me.”

Nausea grips my stomach. I writhe and choke for air. I can’t think past the burning pain.

Ailesse reaches around me. I cry out as something sharp tears from my back. My vision rocks.

Its hilt. Its unwieldy blade.

My father’s knife. Odiva stabbed me with it.





52

Ailesse

I DROP THE KNIFE, AND it clatters on the bridge. I gape as Bastien bleeds out faster. I shouldn’t have pulled out the blade. I lean over him and kiss his brow again and again. I smooth his hair, forgetting my bloody hands. Tears flood my vision. “You’re going to be fine,” I promise. He looks anything but fine. His skin is as pale as the limestone beneath him. Tremors lurch through his body.