Page 121 of Silver in the Bone

“Cait!” Flea screamed from the wall.

“Hold her, Seren!” Caitriona called back.

Do whatever it takes to stop me.

Seren shouted something down to us, but I couldn’t hear a word over the blood roaring in my ears.

Whatever it takes.

“Don’t kill him,” I begged. “Don’t kill him!”

Caitriona showed no signs of having heard me. Her gaze was sharp and assessing. When the hound sprang, she drew in a hard breath.

And let the sword fall from her hand.

The full weight of the beast slammed into her, tackling her to the stones beside Neve. Her armor clattered as it rolled, but it wasn’t half as terrible as the hound’s victorious howl, and Caitriona’s agonized cry.

The hound had clamped its teeth around her steel gauntlet. Emrys and I tried to lock our arms around its shuddering frame, to pull the hound away from her, but it was thrashing, baying, impossible to hold. Heat radiated from its fur as its pulse rose with killing intent.

Caitriona slammed a fist into the side of the creature’s neck and it howled in rage. Claws extended from the paw that was pinning her chest to the ground, piercing the metal.

Whatever it takes.

Reaching down toward her boot with her free hand, Caitriona tried to pull free the dagger there. Emrys cut at the paw pinning her, but the hound was lost to its bloodlust. It released her chest and I watched in horror as it bit down at the place where her neck met her shoulder, puncturing the armor to rip into the skin and muscle below.

Caitriona screamed.

An arrow slid into the hound’s back, but not even the pain loosened its jaws as it thrashed her around like a doll. Blood streaked Caitriona’s face as she tried to pound against its snout, its eyes.

Whatever it takes.

A strong arm shoved me out of the way, and then Bedivere was there, gripping the struggling beast around its middle and lifting it from Caitriona’s prone form.

The moment fractured around me.

Seren and Flea ran toward us.

Emrys pressed his jacket to the priestess’s shoulder to stanch the flow of blood, shouting for Olwen.

Bedivere shouted, “Master it, master it—”

The hound began to shift into something like a human.

And the light of Neve’s spell flooded the courtyard, incinerating the Children, washing all of it, and all of us, away.

The darkness returned like a smothering hand. Motion blurred around me.

Flea sobbed as she pressed her face to Caitriona’s chest, her breath fogging the armor where it wasn’t already wet with blood. She kicked and screamed as a stone-faced Lowri pulled her away. Lowri hugged the girl to her tightly, allowing Rhona, Seren, and Emrys to lift Caitriona’s limp form.

Olwen was already directing the wounded into the great hall. She cried out when she saw their group coming, rushing down the steps to meet them. Others screamed in disbelief or began weeping at the sight of Caitriona.

“Start searching the tower and the underpaths,” Betrys shouted up to the men and women watching in terror from the wall. “I’ll get Ari and meet you in the springs.”

The magic that had fed the lines of fire across the courtyard released with a hiss. Through the smoke, I saw Betrys and Arianwen pull their swords from the twitching body of one of the Children, Arianwen crying as she gently touched one of its grotesque limbs.

A low moan of terror rose behind me. Cabell was white as milk in the dark, fighting to stand as his legs shook. His breathing turned erratic as his shock set in, and through the storm of death around us, his eyes found Neve.

The sorceress took several steps back, her face stricken.

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