Page 41 of Children of Blood and Bone

My voice trails off as a vile sensation crawls up my skin. Like in the market, the heat prickles my scalp. It pulses as a thin wisp of air floats toward me. A strange turquoise cloud cutting through the black smoke.

“Do you see that?” I ask Kaea.

I point, stepping back as the smoke slithers near. The strange cloud carries the scent of the sea, overwhelming the bite of ash in the air.

“See what?” Kaea asks, but I don’t have a chance to respond. The turquoise cloud passes through my fingers. A foreign image of the divîner ignites in my head.…

The sound around me fades out, turning murky and muddled. The cold sea washes over me as the moonlight and fire fade from above. I see the girl who haunts my thoughts, sinking among the corpses and driftwood, falling into the blackness of the sea. She doesn’t fight the current that pulls her down. She relinquishes control. Sinking into death.

As my vision fades, I return to the screaming villagers and shifting sand. Something stings under my skin, the same bite that started when I last saw the divîner’s face.

Suddenly all the pieces come together. The thrashing. The vision.

I should’ve known all along.

Magic…

My stomach twists in knots. I rake my nails over my tingling arm. I have to get this virus out of me. I need to rip the treacherous sensation from my skin—

Inan, focus.

I squeeze Father’s sênet pawn so hard my knuckles crack. I swore to him I was prepared. But how in the skies could I have prepared for this?

“Count to ten,” I whisper again, gathering all the pieces like pawns. By the time I hiss “five,” a terrifying realization hits: the divîner girl has the scroll.

The spark I felt when she brushed against me. The electric energy that surged through my veins. And when our eyes locked…

Skies.

She must’ve infected me.

Nausea churns inside my stomach. Before I can stop myself, this morning’s roasted swordfish fights its way up. I double over as vomit burns my throat and hits the sand with a splash.

“Inan!” Kaea wrinkles her nose as I cough, a hint of concern eclipsed by her disgust. She probably thinks me weak. But better that than her discovering the truth.

I clench my fist, almost positive I can feel the magic attacking my blood. If maji can infect us now, they’ll defeat us before we have a chance to take them out.

“She was here.” I wipe my mouth on the back of my hand. “The divîner with the scroll. We need to locate her before she hurts anyone else.”

“What?” Kaea’s thin brows crease. “How do you know?”

I open my mouth to explain when the sickening sting erupts under my scalp again. I turn. The prickle grows—it’s strongest when I face the southern forest.

Though the air stinks of charred flesh and black smoke, I catch the fleeting scent of the sea again.It’s her.It has to be. Hiding among the trees…

“Inan,” Kaea snaps. “What do you mean? How do you know she was here?”

Magic.

My grip tightens around the tarnished pawn. My palm itches at the touch. The word feels dirtier thanmaggot. If I can hardly stomach the idea, how will Kaea react?

“A villager,” I lie. “He told me they went south.”

“Where is the villager now?”

I point blindly at a corpse, but my finger lands on the scorched body of a child. Another turquoise cloud shoots toward me. All rosemary and ash.

Before I can run away, the cloud passes through my hand withsickening heat. The world fades out in a wall of flames. Screams bleed into my ears.

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