Page 52 of Silver in the Bone

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Are you all right?”

The only thing I could gasp out in response was “Run!”

We did. A creature impaled itself on my blade; another bit at my hair, as if to drag me to the edge of the trees, where more of them waited.

Neve’s scream exploded through the clearing. I whirled around, my heart rioting in my chest, searching for her and Cabell in the darkness. I took a running step forward, only to stop as the clouds parted overhead like curtains and a pillar of blue-white light poured down over the sorceress.

The creatures screeched in protest, falling back—but not far enough to be saved as the light fractured, slicing through the air like shards of glass. The air whistled and I ducked down, covering my head as the creatures were torn to shreds of viscera. The light’s heat burned them from within, creating a ring of smoldering fires.

“Tamsin!”

I looked up to find Cabell rushing toward me, his face stricken with terror as he slid the last bit of distance between us.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” I told him.

He hauled us both up and dragged me toward the others. The pillar of light expanded to reach us before we reached it, incinerating the creatures but passing over my skin like a warm stream. I felt a tug at my core, as if it were pulling me into its protective depths.

Wiping the mud from my face, I shielded my eyes.

Neve stood behind a shocked Cabell, her arms outstretched in front of them. Magic blazed around her like a wild flame, nearly blinding in its intensity. Her braids had fallen out of their buns as we’d fled, and now lifted at her shoulders, rising with the incandescent swell of power. The intensity of her expression, her face glittering with sweat, was as breathtaking as the way her power electrified the air and turned the clearing into the heart of a star.

Neve’s eyes flicked to us, her face set with the kind of determination that made you ache to see it. The raw potential of her power was stunning. I looked around, trying to find the sigil she had used. A large stone was at her feet, but the sigil for a protective spell was only half finished. But that was impossible—this power had to be drawn and channeled through the marking.

“Neve ... ,” I began.

“I can’t hold this much longer,” she warned, her voice crackling with magic. “It’s too much—”

“How are you doing this?” I asked her.

She shook her head, clenching her fists. “I don’t know—I thought we would die and it just—it just happened—”

The magic flared brighter, hotter. The monsters retreated into the shadows of the trees.

“I don’t suppose anyone has a half-decent idea for how we could survive this,” Emrys said faintly, a hand pressed to the wound on his arm.

“I’ll take a bad idea at this point,” Cabell said, his expression dark. He was still panting, but it was the hair growing thicker and darker on the back of his hands that had me terrified.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

Cabell, for once, didn’t lie about it. “Need a second. Need to slow my heart.”

Emrys’s eyes shifted off where Cabell crouched, face pressed to his filthy hands, breathing deeply. I gave a small shake of the head at his questioning look.

“What are the chances they’ll get bored of being obliterated and go away?” I asked.

The barrier flickered. Briefly, I wondered if I had pissed off a god of luck in a past life.

“Guys,” Neve said, her voice cracking. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing left—”

I moved close to her side, holding the axe out in front of me. Emrys’s back was pressed to my side as he faced the other way, burning hot in the freezing air. Cabell staggered to his feet again, his face flickering with shadows as he fought to keep his grip on his mind and body.

We are going to die. That strange, deep calm returned, cold and accepting. We’re going to die.

“We’ll try to get to the tower Neve thinks is at the isle’s center,” I said. “If we can find some sort of shelter—”

A blazing light tore through the air in front of us, soaring past the devastated trees to slam into the nearest creature’s shriveled skin. I jumped as it went up like a match, screeching until I thought my eardrums would burst. Spinning, I searched for the source, but there was no need.

A volley of flaming arrows flashed through the dark, streaking over our heads. Neve’s magic was a shield against the heat of the burning world around us, and I knew the second she released it, we would be consumed, too.

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