Page 146
“Yes.” Keela swiped her fingers with more fervor, like the thought burned through her. “And many of us hate Brokk for it. We believe the gods rule over us, and we are to live harmoniously in their honor. But, like the gods of battle and war, we should not fear spilling blood either.”
“Sounds like we all pick and choose what we think the gods want but in truth just do what we desire.”
Keela laughed. “If that is the case”—the woman lifted one of the sleek spears—“then I will do it fighting for a way of life of my choosing.”
On the second night we reached the summit, and Kael could hardly walk from the pain of fighting against the draw of the soul bones.
Together Roark, Brynn, and I arranged him in a makeshift shelter inside a narrow cavern on the side of the cliff.
Kael’s hair stuck to his feverish brow. He demanded the tethers be added to his wrists halfway up the ledge, and he practically snarled at Roark when he opened my brother’s arms to keep him from thrashing.
“You’re a coward, Ashwood,” Kael gritted out. “Never willing…to bond to the bones…gods.” He clenched his eyes shut and breathed through his nose sharply.
Roark tugged the bands on Kael’s wrists tight and came to my side. Ready?
I nodded. “The one on his other hip, there. The stitching has it embedded in his true bone, but I think I can get it free without damaging his gait. Brynn, the herbs.”
Brynn smiled softly at Kael. “Like we said. It’ll help you sleep through it.”
Kael’s eyes shadowed, and he glared at her, but his voice was gentle. “You won’t go?”
“Gods, you’re rather needy, Ser Darkwin.”
I thought he almost smiled.
“Many women enjoy my pestering.”
“Ah, I see.” Brynn began adding herb pastes over Kael’s chest. He would inhale the fumes, and they would bring fatigue. “Well, you have a choice—keep your many women, or ask me to stay.”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek. Perhaps Kael Darkwin had met his match.
Kael let his head fall back. “Stay. Gods, you say I am aggravating. Dravens are the demanding ones.”
His words slurred, and soon enough his eyes rolled back and he fell into a fitful rest. I followed the burning threads into the shadows.
In the mirrored cave, the air was heavy with brine and smoke. Walls were scorched, like a flame had dragged across the stones. Kael’s form burned beneath my fingertips. Soul bones flashed in different shades, desperate to live on.
His body flinched and jerked beneath my palms. The webs of fibrous craft were melded harshly. There was nothing gentle or methodical about Fadey’s work. He intended the bones to embed in the body in horrid ways. Kael’s back arched when I unthreaded a ribbon of craft and it caught on the bright glow of his true bones.
“Melder.” Skul Drek paced at my back, teeth clacking. “It grows to be too much.”
His fears were not for Kael. I’d stumbled to the side, fatigue digging into my bones until I could not keep upright.
“I’m almost done.”
“Melder.” His voice was a low, snapping growl.
I ignored him. Kael jolted again when I found the final thread keeping the jagged shard melded to the curve of his hip. The shadow of Brynn’s form was close. Her hand touched him, curling her glowing fingers around his.
Threads from his chest, his middle, spilled around the murky shadows and flickered to where they connected with Brynn.
Much the same as my own, the threads grew thicker the more time passed, the more interactions they had between them. Should they choose to foster the bond, no doubt, soon enough their bodies would be set aglow with a delicate web of a soul bond.
At long last, the final thread snapped.
The soul bone flickered, like a new spark in a flame, but Skul Drek covered the piece with darkness in another breath.
Painful cries rolled through the mirror world. He devoured the fragment, dimming the flashing glow from the soul bone until it was a deadened gray. My phantom lifted the bone and muttered for it to rest now before dropping the piece.
