Bone Crier's Moon (Bone Grace, #1)(85)

She stays in my arms much longer than she did at Castelpont. When she slowly unfolds herself and turns around, she gazes up at me, searching my eyes. “That’s all I can do,” she whispers. “We’re coming close to the moment where . . .” She meant to kill me. I meant to kill her.

“Then this can be the new end.” My fingers weave through her hair.

She draws a breath and releases it. “What if you and I didn’t meet on a bridge? What if I was a normal girl who didn’t wear bones or see the dead? Would you feel anything for me if I never lured you with a song?”

My mouth curves. “Would you feel anything for me if I wasn’t your soulmate?”

She shakes her head, which worries me for a moment, but then she answers, “I can’t imagine anyone else for me but you.”

I sweep a lock of her hair off her face and brush my thumb across her cheek. “You never needed to play a song for me, Ailesse.”

Our heads drift together, mine lowering, hers rising.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins. I can almost taste her lips. I’ve been wanting to kiss her for days, and those days have stretched on for ages.

She gasps and jerks back. Her eyes dart wildly around the room.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, a little off balance.

“A Chained is here.”

“Chained?”

“A dead person—a bad one.”

“You can see him without your grace bones? I thought—”

She shakes her head, breathing fast. “I feel him. Once he snuck inside, the energy from the moon dimmed.”

My muscles tense. I curse myself, realizing my terrible mistake. I shouldn’t have risked bringing her here, where the dead can find her. “We have to run.”

The Chained’s bodiless voice snarls, “Do you think you can hide from us?” The hair on my arm stands on end. He barely sounds human.

And he’s right beside us.

In a flash, Ailesse pulls my father’s knife from my belt.

“Wait!” I reach for her.

She springs away and strikes the air, swiping the knife with a cry of exertion. The Chained man hisses. Ailesse’s head whips to the side. She’s thrown back several feet, and her body crashes against a wall of the quarry. She crumples to the ground.

I shout her name, rushing toward her. I fall to my knees and draw her into my arms. She sucks in great gasps of air. Her breath has been knocked out of her lungs. “He’s too powerful,” she pants.

“He stole Light before he came here.”

Feet pound, coming close behind us. I swing around, my hand in a tight fist of rage. I punch hard, and my knuckles connect with something—hopefully the bastard’s face.

He grunts, but then I can’t feel him. I jump up and swipe out again. He’s gone. I remember how fast he came back at Ailesse, and grab the knife she dropped. I blindly attack the air.

I still can’t find him, but I don’t give up. I keep slashing, stabbing, striking. I’ve never felt more murderous. If he touches her again— She staggers to her feet. “Give me back the knife.”

“No.”

“Bastien, I’ve trained to be a Ferrier. I’m—”

A frantic scream splits the air.

It’s not the Chained man.

Ailesse and I exchange a quick glance and race toward the sound. She takes the lead.

The far end of the quarry is mostly caved in, smashed by the bricks of the great house above it.

We climb around the first massive chunk of broken limestone.

My heart stops.

Jules.

She clutches her throat and hovers like she’s dangling from an invisible noose.

“Bastien, the knife!” Ailesse shouts. “He’s choking her!”

I pass it. She throws it.

She has remarkable aim, because the knife suddenly stills in the air—a handsbreadth from Jules’s face.

Jules crashes to her knees and sucks in a ragged breath.

I hop off the limestone and run for her.

The knife that’s lodged in the air pulls back. Lowers. Turns and points at Jules.

“No!” I barrel toward the Chained. But I’m too far away.

The knife arcs down and tears across Jules’s arm. She throws her head back and screams.

I’ll kill him. I don’t care if he’s already dead. I’ll kill him harder.

I grab below the hilt of the knife and find his wrist. I wrench his arm. He howls in pain, and the knife falls.

Ailesse races to my side and catches it up off the ground. She holds it with both hands, raises her arms, and stabs the blade downward. Another howl. Ailesse jumps to the right, anticipating a counterattack.

My fist flies and hits the Chained. But when I strike again, I miss.

Ailesse’s shoulder flinches back. Then her leg. He’s prodding her backward. She slashes with her knife, but can’t find him.

I pick up a stone. “How do we defeat him?”

She cuts the air and hits nothing. “We can’t.” Her other shoulder jerks back, harder this time.

The Chained is driving her into a corner. “We just need to stun him long enough to get away.”

I run toward the empty space she’s fighting. “How are we supposed to do that?”

“I have no idea.”