Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1)(61)
Author: Alexandra Bracken

 

Caitriona shook her head, taking her sister by the arm. “Wake the rest of the tower guard. We’ll need to search the lower levels and springs to ensure none have gotten inside—” Their voices disappeared as they passed through the door.

 

An image of the ravenous Children lingered in my mind long after Caitriona and Betrys had departed. “How much brush and wood do you have to keep the fires burning?”

 

“It’s burning with magic,” Olwen explained. Her words were meant to be reassuring, but the way her lips trembled with her smile didn’t instill much confidence. “The Nine will take turns feeding it until first light, when the Children retreat.”

 

“And if the Children never leave?” I asked.

 

Olwen didn’t dare answer, but I already knew.

 

We’d be trapped here with them.

 

And when the last protective magic burned itself out, and claws met the cold stones, we’d die with them.

 

 

 

Without any sort of agreement, let alone acknowledgment, the others followed me to the room Emrys and Cabell shared. The heavy oak door was already ajar, as if my brother had been expecting us, or at least wondered about the bells still clanging.

 

He sat on his bed, his knees curled up against his chest, his arms wrapped around them. His shoulder-length black hair had fallen forward as he stared at the opposite wall. Cabell didn’t look over as we came in and Emrys shut the door behind us.

 

“You told them?” Cabell asked gruffly.

 

“I had to,” I said.

 

He lifted a shoulder. “You could have at least waited for me to be there.”

 

“I know.” And because it was all I really could say: “I’m sorry.”

 

He nodded, then rose to sit at the table in front of the hearth. The fire of the salamander stones flickered with the shifting air. At the edge of my vision, both Neve and Emrys took an unconscious step back at his approach.

 

The widening chasm of numbness inside me immediately filled with white-hot anger.

 

“I don’t bite,” Cabell said, and my heart broke just that little bit more as he forced his tone to stay light, joking. His white teeth flashed in the firelight. “At least not as a human.”

 

“Tough luck with the curse, Lark,” Emrys said, sounding like his usual arrogant self again. “I suppose that explains why your old man was after the ring in the first place.”

 

He claimed the seat across from Cabell at the table—a round table not so different from Arthur’s, where we all had equal status, and equal ability to eye one another suspiciously. My mouth twisted into a humorless smile.

 

“What happened outside?” Cabell asked, turning to look at me.

 

“The Children have surrounded the tower,” I said. “The Nine are holding them off with fire.”

 

Cabell frowned. “Is that going to be enough?”

 

“Olwen told me fire is the only way to truly kill them,” Neve offered, rubbing her finger along a knot in the wood. “The creatures fear it, and hate light.”

 

“The bigger issue is that they’re blocking our way back to the portal,” I said. “We need to find another way back to the mortal world, otherwise we’re little more than a feast for the undead.”

 

“You’d really leave?” Neve asked in disbelief. “You don’t even want to try to help them?”

 

“What am I supposed to do about any of this?” I asked.

 

Her gaze hardened. “I don’t believe you’re that heartless.”

 

My nerves prickled. “Could that be because you barely know me?”

 

“We can do something,” Neve tried again. “This can’t be the end of Avalon.”

 

I knew she wasn’t just angry with me for having a realistic take on the situation. There was at least some misplaced anger over keeping the truth about the ring from her—someone who clearly prided herself on being self-taught and knowledgeable. Which, fine. It felt good to fight. To release some of that painful pressure that had been building up in me since we entered the watchtower.

 

“I came here for the Ring of Dispel, and now the trail isn’t just cold, it’s dead,” I said, not bothering to soften my tone. “I’m not going to risk my life or Cabell’s scouring the forests for a relic that may no longer even be here. I’d rather get back to our own world and find another solution, and I suggest you do the same.”

 

“This is about more than the ring now,” Neve protested. Her face was the very portrait of noble-minded compassion that had been getting heroic people killed for thousands of years. If ever there was a time for her to be selfish, to trust the impossible odds, it was now.

 

“Did you forget the whole reason you wanted the ring?” I asked. “What makes you think the Council of Sistren will accept you for saving the very place they were banished from?”

 

Neve looked down, her expression tightening. Clearly, that was exactly what she’d been thinking. “It’s not—it’s not just that.”

 

“You want access to the priestesses’ texts so you can learn more about magic?” I suggested. “Including that light spell you cast?”

 

“The one that saved your life?” The fierce expression she turned on me made me sit back in my chair. The fire seemed to suddenly roar at my back, echoing the heat of her words.

 

“Tamsin’s right—” Emrys said.

 

I looked over, brows raised.

 

“Yes, for once I actually agree with you, Bird—”

 

“Stop calling her that,” Cabell interrupted.

 

Emrys continued, ignoring him. “We still have the portal waiting for us. If we travel by daylight, we can probably survive long enough to use the one trip back the hag promised.”

 

“Yeah, let’s just hope one of the Children doesn’t find it and try to climb out into our world first,” I said.

 

The three of them looked at me with varying degrees of horror.

 

“Can you please tell whatever chaos gremlin lives in your brain to be quiet?” Cabell asked, pained.

 

“I’m just saying that time is of the essence,” I said.

 

“You’re right,” Neve said, pushing her chair back. “Which is why I’m going to stop sitting here spiraling into deeper and deeper panic and head back to the library to look for solutions.”