Page 86 of Children of Blood and Bone

The girl snorts. I resent the way it crawls under my skin.

“Your people took his family!” I shout. “Yourpeople caused the Raid!”

She steps back like I’ve punched her in the gut.

“It’s my faultyourfather’s men broke into my home and took my mother away?”

A memory of a dark-skinned woman fills her head with such clarity it leaks into mine. Like the girl, the woman has full lips, high cheekbones, a slight upturn in her eyes. The only difference is her gaze. Not silver. Dark as the night.

The memory steels something inside of her.

Something black.

Twisted with hate.

“I can’t wait,” the girl breathes, barely above a whisper. “I can’t wait till he finds out what you are. Let’s see how bold you feel when your father turns on his own son.”

A violent chill runs down my spine.She’s wrong.

Father was willing to forgive Amari for treason. When I take magic away, he will forgive me for this.

“That’ll never happen.” I try to sound strong. “I’m his son. Magic won’t change that.”

“You’re right,” she says with a smirk. “I’m sure he’ll let you live.”

She turns and retreats into the reeds. My conviction withers with her taunts. Father’s blank stare invades my mind. With it, the air around me thins.

Duty before self. I hear his voice. Flat. Unwavering. Orïsha must always come first.

Even if it means killing me—

The girl gasps. I tense, whipping around to scan the blowing reeds.

“What is it?” I ask.Have I summoned Father’s spirit here?

But nothing appears. No human, at least. As the girl steps into the white horizon binding the dreamscape, reeds bloom under her feet.

They grow nearly up to my head, a rich green that reaches for the sun. She takes another tentative step toward the horizon, and the surge of reeds expands.

“What in the skies?” Like a wave crashing over sand, the reeds spread throughout the horizon, pushing back the white boundary of the dreamscape. A warmth buzzes in my core.My magic…

Somehow she’s wielding it.

“Don’t move!” I order.

But the girl takes off, running into the white space. The dreamscape yields to her whims, wild and alive under her reign. As she sprints, the reeds growing under her feet change to soft dirt, white ferns, towering trees. They grow high into the sky, obscuring the sun with their jagged leaves.

“Stop!” I yell, sprinting through the new world that grows in her wake. The rush of magic makes me faint, sliding down my chest and thrumming in my head.

Despite my yells, she keeps running, a fire in her step as the soft dirt under her feet transforms to a hard rock. She doesn’t skid to a stop until she’s face-to-face with a staggering cliff.

“My gods,” she breathes at the sight of the grand waterfall created through her touch. It foams in an endless wall of white, pouring into a lake so blue it shimmers like Mother’s sapphires.

I stare at her in bewilderment, head still pulsing with the thrum of flowing magic. Over the edge of the cliff, emerald-green foliage fills thecrevices along the jagged stone. Beyond the lake’s outer rim, a small bank of trees blurs into white.

“How in skies’ name did you do that?” I ask. There’s a beauty to this new world I cannot deny. It makes my entire body buzz as if I’ve consumed a whole bottle of rum.

But the girl pays me no mind. Instead, she shimmies out of her draped pants. With a shout, she leaps from the cliff and hits the water with a splash.

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