Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1)(58)
Author: Alexandra Bracken

 

“Tell me your name,” Bedivere said once more.

 

“Cabell.” My brother’s voice was clear, his form human.

 

Emrys released me then, and I darted toward Cabell, dropping to my knees beside him. He sagged into my arms, clutching me like he needed to remind himself of what was real. He looked up at Bedivere with amazement. I gripped his arm, helping him to stand.

 

“Is it a curse, then?” the older man asked.

 

Cabell nodded. “I’ve had it my whole life.”

 

Someone hissed behind us, though I couldn’t be sure if it was Emrys or Caitriona.

 

The question would remain unanswered. Outside the tower, our horses began to whinny, stomping and pawing at the dirt. Caitriona moved toward the door, looking out, her hand already on her sword’s hilt.

 

“We’re losing the light,” she said. “It’s past time to leave.”

 

“That’s it?” Emrys asked.

 

“Our days are short,” the girl said, “but I assure you, my patience for this sort of foolish delay is shorter.”

 

“We can’t leave his body like this,” Cabell said. “We need to bury it—”

 

“No, we don’t,” I said. “Leave it. We’re not dying for him.”

 

The horses were so thoroughly spooked that not even our presence settled them. The speed with which the light was departing, drawing back over the sky like a riptide, turned my blood to ice.

 

I climbed back into the saddle, allowing Emrys to settle behind me. My gaze never left Cabell as he staggered out of the watchtower. The hair was still receding on his arms as he hauled himself up onto his dapple-gray horse. When Bedivere nodded to him, he gave a curt nod back.

 

“I’m not going to ask if you’re okay,” Emrys told me quietly.

 

“Good.”

 

“I wouldn’t dream of saying I’m sorry about Nash, either,” he added.

 

“I’m glad,” I said, clenching the reins. “Because I know you wouldn’t mean it—all you care about is the fact that he didn’t have the ring.”

 

I’d barely spoken above a whisper, but somehow Caitriona had heard it.

 

“Yes, the ring,” she said, circling her horse around ours. “I look forward to hearing your explanation once we’re back at the tower.”

 

I clenched my jaw, keeping my eyes straight ahead on the dead moss dripping from the branches above the waiting path.

 

“And this time,” Caitriona said, clicking her tongue to get her horse moving, “perhaps you’ll be so good as to tell us the true reason you came to Avalon.”

 

 

 

 

 

We rode back to the tower at a grueling pace that left me feeling breathless and bruised by the time the gate was shut behind us.

 

“Come with me,” Caitriona told us. An order, not a request.

 

We fell into line behind her as we made our way up into the tower. Up past the storage and sleeping halls. She only stopped when we reached the third floor of bedrooms. Glancing back over her shoulder, she met Bedivere’s gaze and nodded.

 

“This way, lad,” Bedivere said, guiding Cabell off the stairs and down the dark hall. Cabell said nothing, his black hair a curtain in front of his lowered face. My pulse leapt, clearing the haze from my thoughts.

 

“Wait,” I rasped out, hurrying past Emrys down the stairs. “Don’t take him—”

 

Bedivere held out a hand, stopping me before I could follow. The look he gave me was almost unbearably kind. “Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll watch over him.”

 

Panic trilled in my body. They couldn’t separate us. Anything could happen to him. “Come with me, Tamsin,” Caitriona said.

 

Emrys’s hand closed gently over my arm, urging me back up the stairs.

 

“It’ll be all right, lass,” Bedivere told me. “This once, give his care to another.”

 

No. That wasn’t right. Cabell was mine to protect. He had been for as long as I could remember.

 

“Now, Tamsin,” Caitriona ordered.

 

“I’ll be okay,” Cabell whispered. “It’s all right, Tams.”

 

“Please don’t hurt him,” I begged. Cabell stopped outside his door, his hand resting on the latch. He didn’t turn around. “He can’t control it.”

 

“Why would I hurt him?” Bedivere asked, his blue-gray eyes soft. “He’s a good lad.”

 

“Come on,” Emrys urged, his fingers lightly squeezing my elbow. “He’ll be all right.”

 

Cabell opened the door to the chamber he shared with Emrys and disappeared into it. Finally, I relented, shaking off Emrys’s grip and climbing the last section of stairs.

 

Caitriona led us to the uppermost floor of the castle. The smell of old parchment, ink, and leather greeted us on the top step as if to say You’re here, you’ve found me, you’re safe at last.

 

The library.

 

The space was awash in warm, gentle candlelight. Each flame was cleverly amplified by a glass orb around it, providing illumination to the tables that radiated out from the center of the room. Ornate tapestries were draped over each of the walls.

 

But most breathtaking of all were the rows of bookshelves, carved to resemble a grove of trees. Their branches were made of silver, and their leaves of mirrors, to carry the light and spread it evenly around us.

 

Neve sat at one of the tables beside the fire, a large text open in front of her. Olwen wandered the shelves behind her, seeming to search for something. Both looked over at our unceremonious entrance.

 

“What happened?” Neve rose from her chair, a hand pressed to her chest. I hated the soft, pitying look on her face, but hated my traitorous heart more for squeezing at the acknowledgment.

 

Olwen pulled out two seats for Emrys and me. Emrys went willingly to his, collapsing heavily into it and letting his legs sprawl out in front of him. I had too much adrenaline still whispering beneath my skin to sit down.

 

I paced beside the bookshelves, glancing now and then at their gilt spines and the titles there—Remedies for All Ailments, Beasts of Other Realms, Lord Death—before moving to touch the brittle edges of stacked scrolls.

 

As I turned the corner to the next row, an elfin—the sister Olwen had told us about—appeared in my path, startling like a fawn.