AllFreeNovel
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Tired and broken, we push on.
One foot. Another. Do it all once more.
We crack and shatter while they rush past,
over jagged peaks with wings of steel…
…while ours are porcelain.”
Becca’s voice rose to meet The Bone Man’s, lifting up and filling the space with hundreds of others all singing his anthem. But how many of them really understood his words? How many were crushed under the boots of the mighty? Forced into silence? How many could relate as he sang the verse about finding your hands red with blood and wondering what you’d done?
About not being sorry, but being afraid of finding yourself immobile, shut up behind bars, locked away with only the voice in your own head for company. About how insane that would make you. About how that purposeless life wouldn’t just break your already crumbling wings, but shatter your soul, too.
As the song grew in strength building up to the chorus, I felt something in my soul lift.
“Find your broken crew,
’Cause they’re the only ones who can save you.”
My skin prickled as a new voice rose to join The Bone Man’s on stage and the crowd absolutely rioted at the new addition. The female voice weaving with The Bone Man’s on stage, mingling with his in a way that couldn’t be described in mere words. I searched for the other singer, expecting a guest act to have joined him, but he sang alone, like he always did.
It shouldn’t have taken me so long to realize why the voice woke something inside of me, but when I did, I almost hit the fucking floor.
How?
How had…
Tremors of fear and unease raced up and down my spine and a cold dread filled me all the way down to my toes.
“Oh my god, she’s amazing!” Becca shouted, teary eyed and screaming as she swayed to the chorus. She hadn’t noticed.
I turned to find Grey staring past me toward the stage, his lips parted and brows drawn.
Oh god.
I turned back and followed his gaze, pushing up on my toes to see.
Tall and lean, broad through the shoulders. You’d never know it if you hadn’t spent weeks imagining what it might feel like to feel the crunch of his nasal bones under your fist.
No.
The chorus ended, segueing into the end of the song and the crowd roared. Not just forhim, but forher.
For the new voice.
Formy fucking voice.
My voice that Corvus not only heard in his little makeshift studio butrecorded. That he’d edited and added to his song like it was his right to use whatever he fucking pleased. Because hewasThe Bone Man.
Primal Ethos.
That was CorvusmotherfuckingJames on stage.
My stomach heaved, and I pushed free of the crowd, shouldering past Grey, tearing away from his reaching hands as I shoved through people all around me, itching to use my blade when a few resisted.
Finally, I found cleaner air and fell forward, catching myself on my knees to try to breathe as my head spun.
“AJ!” Grey shouted, and a second later I felt his hands on me, curling around my shoulders, helping me up. “AJ, what’s wrong?”
