Page 132

THE BURIAL

KADEN

“ I t’s an abomination. An abomination!” she barks, pacing back and forth in the small clearing, her body trembling with rage.

The Rider, Teo, is sitting on the ground, face mute of all emotion, eyes locked on the grass in front of him where the blades of glass are still bent, bearing the weight of memory, flattened to the earth.

She hesitates at his side, reaches out a fragile hand to hover over his bent head, before pulling it back and resuming her furious movements.

I don’t understand anything about her. And it scares me how much I want to learn.

“What do I do?” The words are raw and rusted, tasting like iron.

I’m not surprised; Teo screamed himself hoarse when we finally got him far enough away from the clearing that his agony wouldn’t be heard.

It was heart wrenching, watching him wake up, watching him come back to himself, and then, seeing the crashing despair break him, watching him drain away, leaving just this shell behind.

She sinks to her knees immediately before him, but does not reach out to touch him, and I am reminded again how deeply ingrained some things are to her.

“Where is she, Wren?” He leans forward and grabs her hands, squeezing them in his own.

“She was there, and then she wasn’t. The serpent was far, but I was farther, and I couldn’t make it in time.

One step closer and the path of my life would have veered right instead of left.

” Wren murmurs, some indistinct sound of comfort, and his face collapses.

“And now she’s gone. Just…gone. I will never…

” He moans, his pain so sharp it stabs into everyone around him.

Wren…freezes. She doesn’t pull away, doesn’t react in any noticeable way, but I have been watching her so long now that I can hear any change in key to her music.

Rannoch clears his throat softly from the far side of the clearing, drawing her gaze up to him.

He tilts his head, then sighs at whatever answer he sees on her face, and nods reluctantly.

Teo catches the exchange, eyes darting between Rannoch and the pale woman in front of him.

“Wren? Is she…where is she?” It is a plea and a command, full of fear and sudden, desperate hope.

Her eyes distance briefly, a flash of difference I am coming to realize means she is speaking to the bones on her body, and she frowns, shaking her head in response.

I know that face, I think grimly. Someone is telling her to be cautious, and she is ignoring him.

“...sing a song of their life…” Her voice is sweet and soft. Soul and spirit, pay attention, Kaden! I chide myself, focusing in on her words. “And they come to my hands, to be Guided to sleep in empty bone until their own bones are ready to receive their soul.”

“And then what? What? ” He’s distraught, argumentative, pleading — a maelstrom of emotion loosed by the death of his woman.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to be tied to someone so tightly that being cut loose from them would set you adrift in an ocean of grief forever, never to return to port again.

“And then, when I have naked bone from their body, I can guide them home to themselves, and wake them there. Wake their soul, Teo, into their bone life. But I would never force someone to bone who did not want to go, and I won’t wake a soul in bone that isn’t their own…

” Her words trail off, a little catch of sound, as though there is truth but al so a lie in them.

It catches my attention as her face collapses then reforms.

Teo is silent, a silence so full of hope it is sickening, a fist to the gut, fingers wrapped around a throat choking the life from you.

“Do…do you have her?” Wren hesitates, eyes blanking again, hand drifting to her necklace, and Teo reaches out to grab her fingers in his own, knuckles white.

Rannoch steps forward at her small sound of pain, but Teo has already loosened his grip, pressing his wet face against her palms. “Please, blood and stone, please Wren. Do you have her? ”

Everything, everything is balanced in this moment.

Tilting his face up to meet her own, she sighs, and nods. “I do, Teo.”

At her words, all emotion, all movement, all breath drains from him, and he turns to stone in front of her, eyes locked on hers without blinking.

I can’t tell what he’s thinking, what he’s about to do.

Rocking forward on my toes, I ready myself, and from the corner of my eye see Rannoch mimic my motion.

It’s unnecessary. After a long, long pause, Teo jerks his head sharply, once, and simply says, “What do I need to do?”

Wren surges to her feet again in a sudden burst, and begins pacing. “I don’t know. I don’t know ! You…you put your dead beneath the ground, Teo!” She chokes on the words, sounding like she’s about to be sick. “I can’t wake her to foreign bone. Why would you do that?”

Teo’s face is empty, completely blank. “What do I need to do , Keeper?” His voice is respectful, but strange, and she looks at him, worry creasing her brow.

“I need naked bone from her body. No flesh or tendon. Just bone. You can’t…I can’t ask you to do that. Outside the Rending and Reaping, cleaning bone is….it’s not a pleasant task.”

“How much?”

“How much what?”

“How much bone?” He’s conversational now, as though discussing the weather, or what supplies need to be packed, and she shivers unintentionally in response .

“Not much. If it’s a single bone, there is a large enough one at the back of the foot, at the heel.”

“You don’t need more? It is big enough to fit souls? Just the heel bone?”

“It will take her soul. Yes.”

“But your necklace?—”

Wren’s face darkens, and Teo immediately stops speaking. Even in his grief he can see the change. There are evidently questions that just can’t be asked. And most seem to center around the bones on her neck.

“How long do I have?”

She tilts her head consideringly, panic tightening her voice. “I don’t know . From my end, I can keep her safe for long enough. From yours, I don’t know.”

Teo nods. “I will bring her to you. If you will consent to…guide her home, Keeper.”

“Wren…” Rannoch is hesitant, reluctant. It is an odd emotion coming from the usually confident man. “If they catch you, if they suspect anything , it is not the Rider whose neck will be on the block.”

Teo growls, literally growls at him, teeth bared, less man than animal, but Wren quiets him with a raised hand.

“Rannoch, it is all I am made for.” Her voice is quiet and immensely sad, but firm, and he sighs.

“It isn’t, but I understand. I’ll help if I can,” he offers. Teo just looks at him, face eerily empty of emotion.

“I won’t need your help. But thank you. Ellie is mine to…Ellie is mine.”

Rannoch shakes his head. “You don’t know what you’re in for, Rider. Take the help. It’s a descent into darkness you’re not prepared for; you weren’t raised with this.”

Teo stands, walks over to Rannoch, and stares at him for a long time before speaking. When he finally answers, his words are so quiet I can barely hear him, but the clearing is still enough that I manage to catch them, even in the whisper.

“You will find that, someday, for love, there is no hell you will not burn in willingly, happily even, if it is for her.” I can see Rannoch’s body tighten, muscles flexing against movement, but he can’t help the quick flicker of his eyes, just a dart of motion to a moon-pale face and back.

If I’d have blinked, I’d have missed it.

But I didn’t. And neither, it seems, did Teo.

“Ah,” he says, and nothing more, before clasping Rannoch’s shoulder briefly, and silently leaving the clearing.