Page 37 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Jules has nothing else to say and no more bargaining chips. He’ll do as he’s told because the option is permanent death, and I know where to cover the bodies to make them untraceable.

I head deeper into the heart of the forest with my shoulders shrugged and the wind curling the hair on the back of my neck. The further away from the others I go, the easier it is to exist.

Sound returns although the wrongness of the night lingers.

For once, I want her alive in my arms long enough to ruin what comes after. But she never lasts past me.

Chapter 8

Helene

An unnatural call to the rune stones hounds me through sleep.

I tossed and turned for hours, the fight relived behind closed lids.

The troll lunges, swinging the club in a hit designed to demolish everything in its path. I jump over it, muscles warming, blood singing. There. An opening to the left. Barely noticing the way the massive raven pursues the troll. The way it flies to peck out the final remaining eye.

The way the raven suddenly becomes a man.

I woke with my heart hammering and sweat plastering my tank top to my skin.

The raven was Forest. And then we’d sat around the salvaged dinner table like a family out of a fucking sitcom.

Why hadn’t I asked him more questions?

Why hadn’t I paid better attention to his answers?

I slap a hand to my forehead. I fed the man crusts of bread. Fucking hell, what am I doing?

Having a well-deserved menty b.

Well-deserved or not, the timing is poor, and I can’t get my breathing under control. Glancing at Audra, still sleeping, I tiptoe from the bedroom.

Sunlight barely pries through the thin curtains over the living room windows before I’m reaching for the bag. No.

Those are Esmerelda’s fair and square. I sold them and bought...damn, I don’t know. It was right after we moved here, and Mom...

She—

And in my shower, longer than the one last night, my fingers twitch, ready to pull a rune I should not.

Thurisaz had been spot on the money.

A troll, seriously.

My heart kicks into high gear, and I slap a hand to the wall until the water goes chilly.

The world has always been a place where mysteries lurk and the unsolved fascinate. I know better. We’ve seen most of the sacred spots on the west coast, lived there and left as soon as we memorized the strange energy of every new location.

Now we’re here, and we’ve settled, and something extraordinary has happened in a way I can’t ignore.

Audra still isn’t up by the time I’ve finished making coffee.

Now, the bag stares at me, the cords looped over each other like accusations. A thief. They’d belonged to my mother, not to me.

My leg bobs underneath the table and I snake my hand out to grab the strings of the satchel. I’ll take them right back to Esmerelda. She’ll forgive the slight.

She’s always been nice enough to us.