Page 108 of The Bones of Benevolence

“How do you know these are the vials you seek?” I spun to see her standing on the other side of the room, the vials in her raised hand.

No. I was tired. I wouldn’t play her game any longer. I let my fire flare, my palms splitting open with embers as I shot a hand out, a pillar of fire headed straight to the Bloodsinger, but it seemingly extinguished as again she vanished, materializing on the other side of the room. Those angular features turned up in a teasing grin.

Belin had been right. This wasdark. This wasn’t Rhedros, or any of the Blood Saints for that matter. This was beyond even Noros’ evil. This was something different, something truly sinister.

Umbri vanished and reappeared over and over, and I watched as Belin slowly worked his way closer and closer to the bureau. Finally,finallyhe managed to reach it, Umbri’s taunting laugh suddenly cut short as she realized what was happening. With a battle cry he heaved the bureau forward, the sound of wood crashing and glass shattering like a symphony in my ears. A pool of blood spread quickly as the vials broke.

A skeletal arm closed across my chest, the unmistakable smell of death clinging to my senses. Umbri held both vials in one hand and ran them slowly over the skin of my neck, a long fingernail tapping against the glass as the goosebumps raised over my skin.

Belin’s sword flew out in front of him, pointed directly at her throat. When he spoke, his voice was low, a bone-chilling calmness behind it. “Unhand her.”

Umbri snickered in my ear, a slithering whisper following it. “So close. Yet not close enough.” I railed against the Bloodsinger behind me, her preternatural strength taking me by surprise as I let my fire build, let my skin heat as the flames grew beneath it. She let out a pained hiss, jumping back as the two vials in her hands fell and shattered on the ground.

Relief only flooded me for a brief moment as I looked at her face to see a perverse smile, contradictory to the fact that we’d just shattered Castemont’s control on Belin and Kauvras — and countless others.

She reached into the pocket of her trousers once again, producing one more vial. “Compliments of my brothers who oversaw your Initiation.”

Panic crawled up my spine, goosebumps raising across my skin as I realized. She had my blood, too.

The prospect of being a Bloodsinger didn’t scare me. But being a Bloodsinger, one as far gone as Umbri and Ludovicus and the Board of Blood,andhaving access to the powers that ran through my veins…

Pure severity pulsed from Belin as his sword hovered inches from Umbri’s throat. The Bloodsinger was suddenly gone once again, nowhere to be seen.

“Come find me.”

“No,” I heard Belin breathe as he took off toward one of the wooden doors at the back of the room. I followed him through the threshold only to be swallowed by a darkness thick as oil. The door slammed shut behind us, echoing through like a cavern.

I conjured up a small flame in my palm, squinting through the empty room, looking for any sign of the Bloodsinger.

“Hostinhah vel az agyun.” She’d appeared in the corner, chanting in a language I’d never heard.

“No!” Belin bellowed, charging her, sword drawn, but Umbri disappeared again, turning up on the other side of the room. Belin was frantic in his movements as he sprinted from corner to corner in pursuit of the Bloodsinger. I was trying to build the fire within me, but my attention was being pulled in too many directions.

“Ki ah vebenzna ve nomisenz ki ful,” she continued, holding the vial of my blood higher in the air. I spun in circles, the tiny flame in my hand the only light in the room, trying to keep track of her as she disappeared and reappeared over and over and over, chanting, chanting, chanting.

She materialized before me, the look in her eyes mocking me as she stared. Belin approached silently from behind, blade poised to strike.

“I won’t be a Bloodsinger today,” I snarled, not cowering from a stare that would surely haunt my nightmares.

Umbri laughed, that nerve-grating cackle. “You were never going to be a Bloodsinger.”

Belin’s eyes met mine for a split second before the wall behind me was suddenly alight, white candles lined up on the ground, a single black candle on an altar in the middle.

Unbridled terror split across Belin’s face as Umbri threw the vial across the room, the glass shattering on the black brick wall behind the candles, droplets of my blood spattering and sizzling as they fell into the flames. Before I could blink, Belin had grabbed the Bloodsinger from behind and dragged his blade across her throat. She writhed on the floor, smiling while blood shot from her neck in nauseating spurts. With a final choked cackle, she stilled, her face still upturned in a mocking grin.

Despair rushed through my body as I whirled around to the sight of my blood dripping down the wall. Belin was beside me then, sword clattering to the ground, his hands on the sides of my face as he desperately searched my eyes.

I didn’t have the mental space to process what was happening. “What did she mean I was never going to be a Bloodsinger?”

Belin’s mouth was open, his head shaking as he looked around the room, at the blood that now dripped down the side of the black candle. “I don’t know.”

His hands dropped from my cheeks and he straightened, retrieving his sword and resheathing it. I let myself relax a bit, but something wasn’t right. A part of me felt hollow, a part of me missing that I’d never realized was there. I flexed my hands at my sides, rolled my head between my shoulders, searching for the missing piece that had left a gaping hole, butwhat? What was gone?

I had fury, but no heat. Rage, but no fire. Calm, but no storm.

“My powers are gone.”

Chapter 43

---