Page 45 of The Scattered Bones

I say his name one time, two times, three as I run. Valka’s body heat washes over me, his powerful legs hunting me down with ease. He grunts as he raises his sword, the sound too close. He’s on my heels, confident there’s no escape for me, but I’m almost there. The darkness hovers mere feet away. If I can just—

War swings his weapon, the whistle of air like a scream, and with my last ounce of strength, I leap. I soar weightlessly, my consciousness slipping, but as the tip of Valka’s razor-sharp blade cuts deep into the flesh on my back, I slam into the waiting darkness. The Stranger catches my agonized body, his power whisking us into the night as I black out.

The Stranger

SEASON OF ICE, CYCLE 78920

Snow coated the realm, and it was the first time I understood the true savagery of the Season of Ice. For twenty-one cycles, I’d been sheltered, guarded, protected, but I finally experienced the brutality of life beyond the temple walls. The cold ate at my skin and settled in my bones. It burrowed into my soul and corrupted my body from within. I would die in the darkness, in the frost, but I didn’t care.

Those first weeks were nearly the death of me before I learned the world’s harsh truths. I knew nothing of the world, of people, of men, and I was a ghost. For a month, I wandered in such a daze that I didn’t even remember which cities I slept in. I huddled in alleys and survived on discarded scraps. My filthy skin hung from my bones in malnutrition, and then my blood came.

I’d woken alone in an abandoned alley, my pants stained and wet, and when my fingers brushed my thighs, I saw the damning crimson. My cycle had come, just as it always had, and as I stared down at my legs, a darkness I’d never tasted devoured me. I’d prayed that Kaid had left me with a child on our wedding night. If I was forced to spend the rest of my days without him, I longed for a baby to remind me of the man I loved. The hope that I carried a part of him inside me was the only thing that kept me from surrendering to my despair, but as I sat there in my blood, my will to survive evaporated. Nothing remained worth living for.

Something broke inside me that day. Something that might never heal. Using the skills Kaid taught me, I stole what I needed without remorse and purchased a trunk with my illegal gold to carry his dark magic-preserved torso. I freed a horse from a wealthy merchant’s stable, and we wandered the realm as the ice came. The empty numbness plaguing my chest didn’t care if I lived or died. I learned through town gossip that Hreinasta had publicly shunned me. She hid her execution of Kaid, choosing instead to proclaim my blasphemy and treason. She chose another girl to inhabit as her vessel, and the last I heard before I turned my ears away from the news was my family had lost everything in their shame. I wanted to feel sorrow for them, to be ashamed that I brought destruction upon their heads, but every time I contemplated repenting, I saw Kaid die all over again. Remembered Valka condemning him to remain awake until the end, and I cursed them instead. I cursed my parents for sacrificing a child to a selfish god. I cursed Hreinasta for her weakness in following her own decrees and Valka for his cruelty. The gods had abandoned me, and while I was acutely aware of their absence, I didn’t care. I wanted nothing from them.

I remembered little after that. All I knew was cold and loneliness, but one fateful night as I sat before my meager fire, a shadow drifted toward my flames. I watched it swirl in on itself, taking shape, and when a man made of darkness emerged, fear gripped my chest. For a moment, I contemplated defending myself, but a glance at the locked truck Kaid lay inside convinced me to accept my fate.

I prepared to greet death as the stranger approached, but instead of greeting me with violence, he merely crouched before my fire, letting the flames light his face. He was incredibly handsome, both old and young, his body too tall and strong. Long, midnight-black hair framed his haunting features, and the whitest eyes I’d ever seen stared out at me. I flinched at their eerie blindness, but the visitor simply smiled at my movement. We sat, eyes locked in silence, and then he lowered the hood from his head.

“Sorrow should not mar such beauty,” he said. “Come, child, tell me of your troubles. Let me share in your burden as thanks for allowing me to share your fire.”

I’d given him no such permission, but I let his statement slide. I lacked the energy to fight a stranger wandering in the dead of night.

“Surely, you can speak?” he pushed.

“I can.” My voice sounded harsh, and I realized just how long it had been since I’d uttered words.

“Excellent, my child. Now tell me what ails you.”

“No.” I could barely manage the single syllable.

“No?” He cocked his beautiful head at me, the flames reflecting unnervingly in his bone-white eyes. They had no pupils, no irises. They were expressionless, yet so full of wisdom and emotion that I struggled to hold his gaze. “I suppose I judged wrong, then.” He stood gracefully, pulling the hood of his black cloak back over his head. The garment hung in long tatters, ethereal in its smoke-like fabric. “I apologize for the inconvenience. I mistakenly believed you were the one who I could help. The one who could help me.”

He turned to vanish into the darkness, but I had the sudden urge to stop him, to tell him everything he wished to hear.

“They killed him,” I blurted, and the man froze with his back still to me. “The gods killed my husband.”

“The gods?” he twisted, his eyes meeting mine with both horror and anticipation. “Which ones?”

“Valka.” My answer didn’t seem to surprise or interest him. “By Hreinasta’s order.”

The stranger flinched at her name, suddenly enthralled by my words, and he sat before the fire, folding his hands in his lap. He remained silent, but something about the way his black hair was the same shade as Kaid’s, the way his eyes saw nothing and everything, the way he studied me as if I was his entire world, opened my floodgates. I haltingly recounted my love for my husband and his horrific death. He listened intently to every detail of my past, but his interest intensified when I spoke of the ritual that bound Kaid’s soul to his flesh and how Valka carved him into pieces and scattered his bones.

“I can help you, my child,” the dark man said as he moved closer, staring at me with those unblinking eyes.

“How?”

“I’ve witnessed this punishment before. The soul is bound to the body so that it, too, becomes severed and then trapped within the cursed flesh. You were smart to save his chest from the flames. If you had allowed him to burn, part of his soul would have been destroyed, and I could not help you.”

“How can you help?” I looked at him with confusion, my entire being aching from reliving Kaid’s death.

“I have a task for you, my child,” he said in earnest. “One, you must complete alone without my aid, but if you overcome the trials set before you, I swear to return your husband to this life.”

“That’s impossible,” I whispered. Dying was a final and inescapable nothingness. No afterlife, no punishment or reward, no resurrection. Death was the end, the abyss, the ultimate slumber. Its why humanity clamored for the god’s favor. They wished their lives to be blessed before the great darkness stole them, and my parents had aimed high, attempting to garner Hreinasta’s approval. It was almost a pity that their selfishness had led to disgrace and not blessings.

“Perhaps.” He stared at me with such intensity that fear coiled through my gut. “Or perhaps not. Faith, my child. That’s what I need from you, and if you place yours in me, I’ll grant you your greatest wish. If you can trust my promise and complete the tasks at hand, I shall return your husband to you.”

“What tasks?” I knew he was lying. Kaid would never come back to me, but I needed that hope. My soul longed to believe this dark stranger, and grief conquered my reasoning.

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