Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1)(122)
Author: Alexandra Bracken

 

“Say my name,” he said, his voice as smooth and cold as a blade.

 

Merlin’s voice echoed in me. I am one of three . . . One who dies but might yet live . . . one who lives but yearns to die . . . and one left behind, waiting . . .

 

King Arthur. Merlin. And . . .

 

One left behind, waiting.

 

Cabell was the one to answer. “Lord Death.”

 

He smiled, all teeth. “And how have I come to be here, when the paths between worlds were sealed?”

 

The answer wove together in my mind. “The druids.”

 

“No,” he said. “Shall we play a game, child? I’ll tell you another piece of the tale for every question you answer correctly, and deny you the rest should you make another mistake. Do you wish to try again?”

 

My heart pounded painfully against my ribs.

 

“The priestesses,” I heard myself say. “Morgan and the others brought you to Avalon.”

 

“That’s right,” he said, the words reeking with condescension. “In the mortal world, I had given the druids the knowledge of how to call on the magic of Annwn, the greater power of death. I thought the women were finally prepared to renounce their pathetic Goddess to seek the same knowledge. That they wished to serve me.”

 

“They would never,” I said fiercely.

 

Lord Death tilted his head in dark amusement. “No indeed. They offered me a bargain: if I removed the druids’ access to Annwn’s magic, they would give me the one thing I truly desired. Something no one else could.”

 

So that was how Morgan and the others had been able to kill the druids—not by wielding death magic themselves, but by having Lord Death cut off the druids.

 

“You turned against your own loyal disciples?” This went beyond the fickle whims of gods. “What could you want that badly?”

 

“I’m asking the questions, am I not?” Lord Death’s eyes bored into me, and there was no spark of life in them. “When it came time to collect on their promise, the treacherous snakes instead tried to destroy me. Tell me, child, what happens when you burn away a god’s temporary flesh and splinter their very essence? Do they die?”

 

“No.” Dread roiled in me as I understood. “You’ve been here all along. You never left the isle.”

 

A deadly seed, waiting to bloom.

 

“It took centuries to reassemble my scattered soul. Centuries of appalling weakness, unable to exist as anything more than a specter watching from the shadows of the forest.” Lord Death’s words were edged with barely suppressed rage as he touched his crown. “In time, I regained my strength and magic returned to me. I remade the isle to my liking and created my Children to hunt those who had betrayed me. You can imagine my displeasure in discovering the traitors were either dead or had fled into another world.”

 

My pulse rioted in my veins. I looked at Cabell, trying to draw a breath that wouldn’t come. His impassioned look was unbearable.

 

“We were brought here for a reason, Tamsin,” Cabell said fervently, as if begging me to believe him. “The ritual would only work if it was performed with a sorceress. Sisters joined again in purpose. High Priestess Viviane knew that, but she didn’t think the ritual could ever be performed.”

 

Something in me hesitated before asking, “Why not?”

 

“The Nine were wrong,” Cabell said. “They were all wrong. There was never a protective spell barring the sorceresses from Avalon.”

 

“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to reach for him again. “You’re not making any sense . . .”

 

“The sorceresses barred the entrance to Avalon from our world, not the other way around,” Cabell said. “They didn’t want Lord Death to come for them. He had to do this to the isle. He couldn’t call the Wild Hunt to Avalon and pass through the worlds that way—there are protections here against it. He’d foreseen that a sorceress would come one day, and he knew the ritual was his only way around the sorceresses’ spells. And now he can truly punish them.”

 

“Poor child,” Lord Death said to me, clicking his tongue in false sympathy. “For all your cleverness, you do not yet understand. You cannot see how you came to my aid.”

 

“I didn’t,” I rasped out. “I—”

 

But I knew. I knew.

 

“Yes,” Lord Death said, the very portrait of arrogant disdain. “The athame. The High Priestess suspected me, and what I had planned. She hid the athame in a place I could not enter so no ritual would ever be performed.”

 

The way the athame had become an extension of her, as if, even in death, Viviane knew she needed to keep it close to protect it. That was the will, the desire, that had manifested the revenant.

 

“I could not cross the barrow’s protection spell, nor could I send one of the Nine without arousing suspicion. I was at quite a standstill, until young Cabell had the most excellent notion to send you,” Lord Death continued. “I was pleased to repay his favor with one of my own—ensuring that you would survive to see the ritual performed, and be offered the very same chance to join him at my side.”

 

I turned again to my brother, feeling like I was back in the lake. Like I was drowning in icy water. The darkness closed in over me, stealing the last trace of light. “Cabell—look at me. Look.”

 

He wouldn’t.

 

“All of those people died—did you just stand there and let it happen?” I said, voice breaking. “Please . . . I don’t know what he’s told you, but—”

 

“He showed me what I am,” Cabell said. “After all these years, I know who I am. He can help you discover your own path, Tamsin. All you have to do now is come with us.”

 

I stared at his outstretched hand, sick to my soul. For all those who had died. For the role that he had forced me to play in this. “No.”

 

Cabell’s expression darkened with pain as he pulled his hand back. His black eyes pierced me to the bone. “For years, I told myself there was something wrong with me. That I was a problem that had to be fixed. Do you know how it made me feel to have you and Nash treat me that way? You made me feel like I was a monster. Always walking me back from the edge because you both were too afraid to let me truly control my power. It made me feel like I had to be afraid of myself, too.”

 

“That’s not true,” I protested.

 

“It was never a curse,” he said, his voice ragged. “All along it’s been a gift, and one I’m meant to use. My lord helped me see that. He can help you, too. Please. Come with us.”