Page 32 of Bone Year

“What do you want to talk about?” he asks, his voice soft in the dim, cluttered space.

“Your team had a crawler too?”

“Yeah.” He scrubs a hand through his silvery blond hair. “I’ve never cut into something like that before. The way the body looked reminded me of the thing in the forest that attacked us.”

“I know.” I tug the blanket tighter around my shoulders. “That’s all I could think about while we were in there.” I chew on my bottom lip, the worry I’ve been pushing down all night finally clawing its way to the surface. “I need to find a way to tell Briana and mother about the crawler. What if there’s a fissure near Ironfen? The whole village could be in danger.”

Jace shifts his weight, moving closer. “Listen, don’t worry about your family.”

“How can I not worry?”

“Because I already told my parents before we left. I told them everything about the guy that attacked us. I don’t know for sure if it was a crawler or some sick, crazed man, but they know. And by now they’ll know that you’re at Ashwell.” His hand finds my cheek, tilting my face up until I’m looking at him. “They’ll look out for your mom and sister. They’ll be okay.”

I want to believe him. I want to let go of the knot in my chest and trust that everything will be fine, but I’ve learned the hard way that hope is a dangerous thing to hold too tightly.

“There’s something else you should know,” he says with some reluctance, making my stomach drop. “About the body.”

I swallow. “What about it?”

“I went back to examine it.” His thumb traces a slow line across my cheekbone. “But when I got there, it was gone.”

My eyes widen. “Are you sure you went to the right spot? Maybe you were confused.”

He shakes his head. “No, there was blood on the ground and drag marks leading into the forest. I followed them for a bit, but then I lost the trail.”

“That thing could still be alive.” I sit up straighter, my heart pounding. “It could have attacked someone else by now.”

“I don’t think it’s alive. There was a lot of blood, Mae. And the drag marks...” He shrugs. “I bet an animal took it up into a tree and ate it.”

I don’t know what animal would do that. A panther maybe, but those are rarely sighted near Ironfen. The explanation feels thin, like he’s saying it more to comfort me than because he believes it.

“Maelis.”

His hand is still on my cheek, his fingers tracing up and down in a slow, soothing pattern. I meet his blue eyes and find something there that makes my breath catch. Something that has nothing to do with crawlers or fissures or the danger waiting back home.

“I don’t want you to stress about this,” he murmurs. “My parents are with your family. That thing is dead. And we have enough to worry about here with classes starting.” He tucks a strand of red hair behind my ear, his fingertips brushing the curve of my jaw. “It’s going to be okay. We’re together.”

I don’t say anything. I’m not sure I can.

“Mae.” His voice drops to something barely above a whisper. “I would never let anything happen to you or your family. You know that, right?”

I nod, not trusting my voice.

His gaze lingers on my face, tracing over my features like he’s thinking something he doesn’t want to voice. Then his eyes fall to my mouth. He’s closer than he was a moment ago. I don’t remember him moving, but I can feel the warmth of him through the blanket, can smell pine and something faintly sweet on his skin like cinnamon.

For a moment, I think about letting him close the distance, falling into something easy and familiar that doesn’t require me to think about dead bodies and shrunken hearts and my father’s warnings scrawled in fading ink.

But I can’t when my head is so full of everything else.

I clear my throat and slide off the table, the blanket slipping from my shoulders. “It’s late. I need to get some sleep if I’m going to make it through our first day of classes tomorrow.”

I brush past him toward the door, my skin still tingling where his fingers touched my cheek. When I pull it open, I glance back.

He’s watching me with a soft smile, something patient and understanding in his expression. Like he knows and has been waiting all these years for me to finally see it.

“Goodnight,” I tell him.

He doesn’t say anything else as I slip out into the cold and make my way back to my room.