Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1)(60)
Author: Alexandra Bracken

 

My pulse spiked.

 

“That’s not—” I tried to interrupt.

 

“Let her speak,” Caitriona snapped. “Another word from you and you’ll be back down in ‘storage.’ Go on, Mari.”

 

And so Mari did, and the last bit of control I had over our situation finally slipped away.

 

“The Ring of Dispel will only obey the master who proves their worth by killing its last one. It can only be claimed through death.”

 

 

 

 

 

I felt Neve’s gaze on me like a brand, blistering with silent accusation.

 

You don’t owe her rat piss, a voice whispered in my mind. If she didn’t do her research on the ring before setting off to find it, that’s her fault.

 

It didn’t stem the burn of bile that rose in my throat.

 

“If this ring can break curses and we think there’s a chance it’s been returned to Avalon, why aren’t we out searching for it?” Olwen asked. “Isn’t this the blessing we’ve been praying for?”

 

“And risk countless lives searching outside the tower’s walls?” Caitriona shook her head and looked at me. “As it stands, your father is dead, and the ring is seemingly lost. What is it you intend to do now?”

 

“The same thing you should all do,” I told her. “Leave this festering slice of hell and return to the mortal realm.”

 

The most surprising thing wasn’t the way Caitriona recoiled at the suggestion, but the way Olwen and Mari averted their attention toward the mirrored leaves of the shelves, as if hit with the guilt of suddenly hearing their own thoughts echoed back to them.

 

“The isle is our home,” Caitriona said. “It was the pride of our ancestors, and the gift of our Goddess. You may have no faith in the greater tapestry of fate, but we do. I know there must be a way to restore the land and the Children to that which they once were, and I will continue to fight every day to find it.”

 

“Fight how?” I said. “It’s been two years and you’re no closer to stopping this. You’ve already lost. The only question is how many more lives you’re willing to sacrifice.”

 

Caitriona’s face flushed with barely suppressed anger. None of the other sisters said a word. Seeing my earlier suspicion validated was the worst kind of victory—hollow and bitter to its core.

 

“Whatever happened here was fatal,” I continued. “You have the power to open the path back to the mortal realm, don’t you? This isle is dead, and the people here are next. How long before the magic starts to turn the living? Are you going to spend your last days washing blood off the stones until there’s no one left to do the same for you?”

 

Mari stood up from her seat, trembling and pale. She fled the library with a suppressed sob, her feet pattering down the steps.

 

“Tamsin . . . ,” Emrys said. “Maybe now’s the time to take a well-earned break from your usual heart-crushing fatalism?”

 

I ignored the furious looks of the others. I didn’t need a morality lesson from people who refused to swallow even a small dose of the truth.

 

Caitriona started after Mari, but Olwen stood and held up a hand. “I’ll check on her after we finish here.”

 

“Look,” I said, but couldn’t bring myself to apologize. “Without the ring, the only thing I can do now is try to find the next relic or spell or sorceress that might be able to help Cabell.”

 

“And you don’t think the answer could possibly be here?” Neve said, sweeping an arm around us.

 

“You still have not spoken of how you came to this land,” Caitriona said. “How, then, will you return?”

 

I spoke before Neve could tell the truth. “Neve opened the path. I’m sure she can do it again.”

 

“That’s only if I agree to go with you,” Neve said with the sort of deserved resentment that only made me like her that much more.

 

“Then one of the priestesses can send us back on our merry way,” I shot back.

 

“No,” Caitriona cut in. “Contrary to your lies, it is impossible for a sorceress to open the path after the Forsaking, and no priestess shall take you. There is not enough daylight to make the journey, and I will not risk any of my sisters’ lives for yours again.”

 

A blazing swell of fury and outrage rose in me. “There has to be another way—”

 

A bell tolled harshly, its frenzied clang-clang-clang a desperate summoning. My pulse sped to meet it.

 

“What now?” I asked.

 

Caitriona’s armor rattled as she ran past me toward the back wall and pulled aside a tapestry, revealing a row of arched windows. We gathered behind her, searching the darkness beyond the tower’s walls.

 

Caitriona gripped the crumbling sill, her breathing turning ragged.

 

Below us, the parched moat was an inferno of fire. The flames cast a sinister light on the hundreds—thousands—of Children of the Night who had gathered at its edge.

 

Some threw themselves at the flames, testing whether they could pass. One flung itself from a nearby tree, clawed hands somehow catching the fortress’s wall, only to skid down and be devoured by the shimmering heat. A second made it farther up but was picked off by an archer before it could scale the curtain wall.

 

There was a clattering of footsteps on the stairs. Betrys burst through the door a moment later, her brown skin glowing with sweat.

 

“What’s happened?” Caitriona asked, going to her side.

 

“They’re—” Betrys sucked in a deep breath. “They came all at once. They’ve surrounded us completely. I lit the moat—but they’re not fleeing from it, the way they have before. How did they get through the protection wards in the forest?”

 

A whisper of fear crossed Caitriona’s face before she steadied it into its usual mask of calm control. “Their magic has finally failed. It’ll only be a matter of time before those on the tower’s walls do as well. You were right to light the moat.”

 

“What do you mean, their magic has failed?” I demanded. “How is that possible?”

 

“Dark magic is corrupting,” Caitriona said. “The presence of the Children weakens the isle’s oldest and strongest spellwork.”

 

I caught Emrys’s eye.

 

“Should we light the secondary fires on the upper walls?” Betrys asked.