Page 51 of Silver in the Bone

The old, fetid, rotting hag. She knew exactly what awaited us in Avalon.

God’s teeth, I thought. It didn’t matter how far we ran or if we managed to find a place to hide. They’d be able to track us.

“The tower!” Neve shouted to me. She didn’t need to finish the thought for me to understand what she meant.

“We won’t make it!” I told her. The creatures would overrun us long before we found it in the disorienting maze of the dead forest.

We broke into a clearing, one littered with the same jagged boulders we’d seen in the water. The dead grass was waist-high, snapping underfoot and catching on my flannel coat as I pushed through it.

Ahead of me, Cabell tried to navigate us through the rocks, but there were too many of the creatures now. I fell back as they swarmed like ants, crawling up the trees and over the stones. Within the span of a gasp, I was cut off from the rest of the group.

Emrys spun around, searching for something—me. The moment his eyes met mine through the chaos, raw panic seized his expression. “Tamsin!”

He tried to run forward, but the spidery creatures slid into the gap between us.

“They hate light!” I shouted to the others.

Neve scooped up a stone from the mud and set to work trying to carve a sigil into it. Cabell stood in front of her, warding off the creatures to buy her more time.

The creatures snarled, turning toward the entrance to the clearing where Septimus and two of the Hollowers were stumbling out of the forest, their backs to us.

Septimus was drenched in the creatures’ dark blood, screaming back at them as he smashed his axe into any limb that reached for him. One of the Hollowers with him was overrun and tackled to the ground. The creatures descended on him with claws and teeth, tearing out his throat, giving the others the opportunity to advance deeper into the clearing.

Where do I go? The thought twisted my stomach. I slashed at the creatures that leapt toward me, but each strike only seemed to renew their bloodlust.

“Tamsin!” Emrys called again. I pivoted, using his voice to reorient myself toward the others. When a path opened in that direction, I seized the chance and ran. Rancid clouds of breath bloomed with each step. Crackling bones and joints, chittering teeth—I didn’t need to look to know that the creatures were right behind me.

Something caught the collar of my coat and wrenched me back. I screamed until my throat turned raw. The scent of death was inescapable as I thrashed, fighting to free myself. My foot slipped, and then I was falling, but not into the gaping maws of the monsters.

“Where do you think you’re scampering off to, kitten?” The voice was right beside my ear.

Septimus.

He banded an arm around my chest and held me up in front of him. And somehow, the fact that it was him, and not one of the monsters, was even more terrifying.

He swung me to the right, one last flesh-and-blood shield to save himself. A blistering fury overtook me, and I heard the fire of it echoed in Cabell’s and Emrys’s pleas.

“Don’t! Septimus!”

“Let her go!”

I tried to slip my coat off, to slash back at him with my knife, but Septimus pinned the hand with the knife to my side and used his other hand to grip the back of my neck. A creature chittered with excitement as I was presented to it as its latest dinner course.

“Nothing personal,” Septimus sneered from behind me. “But it’s time for you to actually be useful—”

The stench of blood was smothering, but a sudden calm came over my mind, like the moment you surrender to a powerful current and use its force to carry you toward whatever fate awaits.

I wasn’t going to die for him, and I wasn’t going to save him, either.

My palm was slick with sweat, forcing me to grip my knife tighter as I adjusted the angle of its blade. His grip had slackened just long enough to do what I had to.

“Purr, kitten,” I snarled, then slammed the knife into his leg, just above the knee.

Septimus screamed, the sound wrenching from his chest. It was pure animal. He knew—he knew as he fell to the ground, unable to run, as he lost his grip on me, what would happen next.

The axe fell from his hand as one of the monsters slammed into him, claws tearing into his chest.

I grabbed for the blood-soaked weapon, my mind barely registering that its handle was still warm from his skin as I hacked at the monsters around me. I turned, crashing into Emrys. His eyes were wild as he gripped my arms, his face stricken.

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