Page 146 of Silver in the Bone

I didn’t need help. I didn’t ...

He retrieved the waterskin from my things, wavering a moment beside me. I tried to lift my hand, but it was as if my blood had turned to lead. After a moment, he slid a strong arm beneath me and slowly propped me up, bringing the water to my lips.

I spat out the first of it, needing to rinse the foul taste from my mouth, then, too tired to feel self-conscious, I drank greedily. The smell of him, evergreen and warm skin, wrapped around me.

Emrys had taken off both of our jackets and hung them near the fire to dry. When he lowered me back onto his blanket, the one that smelled like him, the cold crept over me again.

A strange sound, one I hadn’t caught in weeks, drifted in through the doorway. I turned toward it, not quite believing my eyes as the first drops of rain pattered down. After a few moments, it fell harder, rattling the dead leaves on the nearby branches and slanting against the watchtower’s walls.

And for once, I could barely hear the Children at all.

The fire burning at the head of the tower hissed viciously, but it would hold as long as the salamander stones touched one another. Our wards would offer another layer of protection from the Children. For a moment, I could almost believe we were truly safe.

“Try to rest,” Emrys murmured, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He seemed to realize what he’d done a moment too late and flushed.

But I had liked it, that touch. What it said without speaking. What it could have become.

His hair was redder in the dying light, and the shadows made him seem older—a hundred years, not seventeen. “You lost a lot of blood. I had to utilize my extremely limited first-aid training and stitch the cut on your arm.”

The quiet peace of the moment splintered into thousands of jagged shards.

He saw.

Olwen’s voice sang with the rain. Three magics to be feared ...

“Emrys,” I whispered with what urgency I could muster. Already, the shadows were returning for me. “When I die, burn my body. I’m one of them.”

He gripped my hand tightly, leaning his face over mine again. I tried to focus on it. On his eyes, gray as a storm cloud, green as earth. “No, you’re not.”

Three magics to be feared ... curses born of the wrath of gods, poisons that turn soil to ash, and that which leaves one dark of heart and silver in the bone.

“Dark of heart,” I said, my thoughts fracturing, my tongue turning lazy. “Silver in the bone.”

“There is nothing dark about you,” he said vehemently. “Nothing.”

“I killed Septimus ...” Maybe that had left a mark on my soul. A brand on my very bones.

“The Children killed him,” Emrys said.

My eyelids sank again, and I tried to hold on to his words, to believe them.

But there, in the darkness, I only saw Nash’s bones returning to the earth. Laid out the exact way I was, in an identical tower. Lost and nameless.

Alone.

The sight of him faded like twilight into night.

“Don’t leave,” I begged. “Please don’t leave ...”

“You’re the bird,” Emrys whispered. “You’re the one who always flies away.”

Liar, I thought. Emrys Dye was a liar, his words as smooth as a snake’s underbelly. He’d leave if it benefited him. If he knew what I’d seen.

He’d leave like everyone else.

Don’t tell him, I thought. He’ll go and it’s too dangerous. She’ll kill him ...

But if clever Emrys wanted it, he’d find a way. He’d find it, and I wanted to know.

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