Page 5 of Silver in the Bone

I jolted awake with a gasp, twisting and thrashing to free myself from my sleeping bag. The first bit of sunlight gave the red fabric of our tent a faint glow.

Enough for me to see that I was alone.

They’re gone.

Static filled my ears, turning my body to pins and needles. My fingers were too numb to grip the zipper on the tent’s flap.

They’re gone.

I couldn’t breathe. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. They’d left me behind again.

With a frustrated scream, I broke the zipper and ripped the flap away, tumbling out into the cold mud.

The rain came down in torrents, battering my hair and bare feet as I scanned my surroundings. A thick mist churned around me, blanketing the hills. Trapping me there, alone.

“Cabell?” I yelled. “Cabell, where are you?”

I ran into the mist, the rocks and heather and thistle biting at my toes. I didn’t feel any of it. There was only the scream building in my chest, burning and burning.

“Cabell!” I screamed. “Nash!”

My foot caught on something and I fell, rolling against the ground until I hit another stone and the air blasted out of me. I couldn’t draw in another breath. Everything hurt.

And the scream broke open, and became something else.

“Cabell,” I sobbed. The tears were hot, even as the rain lashed against my face.

What good will you be to us?

“Please,” I begged, curling up. The sea roared back as it battered the rocky shore. “Please ... I can be good ... please ...”

Don’t leave me here.

“Tam ... sin ... ?”

At first, I thought I had imagined it.

“Tamsin?” His voice was small, almost swallowed by the storm.

I pushed up, fighting against the sucking grass and mud, searching for him.

For a moment, the mists parted at the top of the hill, and there he was, as pale as a ghost, his black hair plastered to his skull, his near-black eyes unfocused.

I slipped and struggled up the hill, clawing at the grass and stones until I reached him. I wrapped my arms around him. “Are you okay? Cab, are you okay? What happened? Where did you go?”

“He’s gone.” Cabell’s voice was as thin as a thread. His skin felt like a block of ice, and I could see a tinge of blue to his lips. “I woke up and he was gone. He left his things ... I looked for him, but he’s ...”

Gone.

But Cabell was here. I hugged him tighter, feeling him cling back. Feeling his tears become rain on my shoulder. I had never hated Nash more for being everything I always thought he was.

A coward. A thief. A liar.

“H-he’ll be back, won’t he?” Cabell whispered. “Maybe he just f-f-forgot to say where he was g-going?”

I didn’t want to ever lie to Cabell, so I didn’t say anything.

“W-we should go b-back and wait—”

---