Page 130 of Bull Moon Rising

“Magpie and Barnabusandrats? Aren’t they all the same thing?” Mereden jokes. We groan, and she smiles with fatigue, looking over at Lark. “Sorry.”

Lark waves a hand. “She’s dead to me after this.”

It’s easy to say such things when you’re in a bad place and hurting, but something tells me that Lark will have a harder time detangling herself from her aunt’s influence, especially if Magpie remains our teacher. Justthe thought makes me want to burst into hysterical laughter. To think I’d counted myself lucky—lucky!—that the famous Magpie was going to be teaching us.

I should have run for the hills.

Gwenna comes to sit next to me. “You all right, Aspeth?”

Her kind words make me shrug. I genuinely don’t know if I am or not. Of all of us, I’d thought I had the most to gain or lose—but it’s all the same when you’re about to die, isn’t it? The door shakes again, but it’s clear nothing is coming through, not with the heavy slab parked against it and us leaning on it. The ratlings aren’t leaving.

Well, neither are we. There’s nowhere for our Five to go.

But Gwenna wants a better answer than a shrug. I can tell by her expression. “Just thinking about Hawk. If he finds us, he’s going to be really, really mad.”

“At us or at Magpie?”

“Both.” I imagine his furious expression, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, and instead of making me worry, I feel a bolt of longing so intense it hurts. I miss him. I wish he were here. Hells, I wish I were at his side instead of down here in the catacombs.

I’ve failed in my end of the bargain, too. I’d promised him I’d be his wife and partner through the Conquest Moon’s grasp and instead ran away into the Everbelow only to get trapped. He won’t have anyone for his Conquest Moon. He’ll think I’ve betrayed him, that I haven’t held up my part of our deal.

Poor Hawk will have to rely on sex workers. I picture him in the alley, women crawling all over him and begging for him to touch them, and something deep inside me dies.

I don’t want anyone to touch him but me. He’s mine.

It’s just another thing I’ve ruined. Another person’s life I’m casually destroying.

Strangely enough, it hurts more than everything else. Perhaps it’s because I’ve had time to get used to the idea that I’d be hunted like an animal if I didn’t get artifacts to save my father’s hold. I’ve bedded down with that realization for months now. But the loss of Hawk is new, and it aches. I’d allowed myself to hope for something more.

That maybe after all the dust had settled, he’d still want to share a bed with me, still want to talk to me late into the night, just telling me about his day….

“Hawk will understand,” Gwenna says, interrupting my melancholy thoughts.

I don’t think he will. Even now he’s probably bending some woman over in an alley while we wait for ratlings or starvation. “He’s not coming for us. It’s the Conquest Moon. He’s going to be…occupied for the next several days.”

And cursing my name the entire time.

“And there are no other Taurians in the city right now. Not any guild ones.” Lark leans against the slab heavily. “We’re in for a long wait.”

“But you do think someone will come?” Mereden asks.

“Oh, I do. They’re bound to come after the ring.” She waves a hand at the ring tied to the top of my staff, the red glow continuing to pour forth. “It could take a long time for them to find it—and us—though.”

Kipp gets to his feet. He dusts off his tail, licks his eyeball, and then looks around the chamber. He moves to the far corner of the crypt and we watch him from our spot by the door, and when he pokes and prods at the walls, I finally speak up. “What are you doing, Kipp?”

He turns and gestures. It takes me a moment to realize he’s indicating that he’s looking for a way out.

I sit up. “This room is sealed. It has to be, or else the ratlings would be coming in. They’ve probably had a nest in that room for ages.”

Kipp slumps, nodding. Then he shakes himself off and goes back to his prodding. To him, it doesn’t matter. He’s still going to look for a way out. He’s not going to give up.

I’m filled with intense affection for the slitherskin. “He’s right,” I say. “We can’t just give up. We should try to find a way out. I don’t want to die here.” I think of the tomb robber we’d found in the drop just a short time ago and hope that’s not our fate. To come so close to success and yet die on the way.

The doors surge again, and Gwenna gets to her feet. “Two of you keep leaning against this at all times. We can take turns searching the room.”

I get up, ignoring the throb of my bad wrist. “Mereden, why don’t you come sit with Lark?” They’re both the worst injured, though Lark would probably deny it. “I’ll help Gwenna and Kipp look around.”

They settle in against the slab, and Mereden’s face looks tightly drawn in the shadows. Her curly hair is covered in pale dust, which I know she has to hate. She’s particular about her hair.

---