The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch, #3)(109)

“I’ll give you everything you want, Kalen,” I said fiercely. “I will—” My voice broke, and I could no longer find the words.

“No grave will hold me, Tea. I swear it. I’ll never leave you.”

“I love you,” I sobbed. “I will love you for the rest of my life.”

“And I will love you for the rest of yours.” He sighed, long and low, his voice growing weaker. “The song you sang once. At Thanh. Sing it again.”

I held my hands over his heart, kissed him on his bloodied lips, and sang for him.





Only Lord Fox’s timely intervention saved her. The former Faceless’s teeth had sunk into the man’s neck, which spurted jets of blood. He tried to push her off, but her grip was a vise.



Lord Kalen’s blade was true. It slashed across her face, forced her to drop her hold on the other familiar. The Deathseeker attacked again, in a combination of flame and fire and steel, and the blighted was forced back. Her serpentlike face was a ruin; the man had succeeded in taking out an eye, but she showed no outward pain or dismay, only hate.

“Fox!” The Dark asha went down on her knees beside her brother as the latter struggled to stand, hand clasped over the side of his neck. “I’m fine,” the man said through gritted teeth. “Are you hurt?”

“You cannot be reckless here, Fox! She is stronger than most!”

“She’s right,” Lord Kalen supplied grimly. “Remember the elder asha in Daanoris—stronger, faster, angrier.”

“She blighted herself?” Lady Zoya breathed out, staring in horror at the new abomination. “But why?”

“Her last resort. Because she’d rather be damned than give Tea what she wants.”

“From where I stand, she already looks the part.”

“We need to get out of here. Outside of the range, where we can use the other daeva against her.”

The blighted Druj lashed out again, a coiled strike, but Lady Zoya clapped her hands together, and the sand sank beneath the creature again, putting her off balance. A whip of fire struck the abomination across the chest, and she keened.

“Run!” Lord Kalen roared, and we obeyed without question.

We were about a hundred or so feet away when the entrance leading into to the Ring of Worship collapsed, sand and rock and great portions of mountain toppling down in a terrifying avalanche. Druj slithered toward us, hissing, whispering, yellow, irisless eyes trained on us.

She came at me, the weakest of the runners, and my life would have ended there had not the indar dropped from the sky, its hideous talons crushing the former Faceless—only to release her with a pained scream as its talons burned from her poisoned hide.

“She can kill even daeva,” Lord Khalad growled.

“Better them than us,” Lady Zoya barked back. “Keep those shields ready, Kalen!”

“Everyone has a weakness. Where’s hers?”

“There.” The bone witch pointed at the monster’s midsection, where something gleamed in the light. “Her silver heartsglass,” she noted grimly, lifting her sword again. “If we could cut it out of her—”

“Stay where you are.” Lord Fox rose to his feet, wincing. “If she takes you out, two of us fall with you, and she knows that. Zoya, protect them.”

“And leave you two to have all the fun?” But the asha was already weaving strong runes of Shield over us, and I watched small pieces of dislodged rock bounce harmlessly off her barrier.

The Dark asha paid us little attention. It was her turn to sink to the ground with her eyes closed, her expression intense. The Heartforger knew what she intended to do but didn’t enlighten me. Instead, he sat down beside her and took her hands in his. He closed his eyes, and their silver heartsglass glowed together.

The bone witch’s familiars adopted the same tactic they used with Aadil, though with greater difficulty this time around, for when Druj faced one of them, her tail still posed a threat to the other. Her poison was another obstacle; it dribbled down her body like silky, black ichor and fizzled in the sand. Lord Kalen grunted as drops of it sprayed against him, though he remained as quick as ever. His sword ravaged the horrific tail, and he wove more Fire to shred the stump. But when he attempted Wind, it sent bile spurting in our direction.

“No Wind!” Lady Zoya shouted. Her defenses kept us from a grisly fate, though the poison left the unshielded ground around us black, the bile quickly dissolving the rock and debris.

The other daeva were warier. They circled the Faceless, occasionally snaking out with fangs and talons, but hesitant to commit to a full attack. The zarich tried, but the magic of the place affected it, and its breath barely conjured enough ice to frost the ground.

The savul also made an attempt but shrieked when a swipe from the Faceless soaked its limbs in the bile. It pawed at the ground in a desperate bid to wipe it off. The Dark asha hissed in pain, nails digging into the soil. Fire blazed out of the azi’s mouth, but the Faceless lifted its tail, and the flames glanced off the rough scales.

An unspoken command passed through the daeva, and they all attacked as one. Their own poisons may as well have been perfume in comparison to the Faceless’s and served the daeva no true defenses. They retreated but fought on as the bile ate down to bone. The Dark asha was shaking, her palms streaked with blood where her nails gouged her flesh.