Fire and Bone

by Rachel A. Marks

  God help me. It’s getting worse.

  And now I’m with Kieran. Who I’m not even sure I can trust.

  “How do you know all of this?” I ask.

  His voice drops so that I can barely hear him. “My brother.” I open my mouth to ask what he could possibly mean—the king is dead—but he cuts me off, saying, “I’ll explain, I swear, but first we need to hide you from the creature trying to poison you.”

  I thought that was him.

  “Faelan is being brought up momentarily,” he adds. Then he tips his head, giving me a curious look. “But you don’t seem to be terribly worried about him.”

  “Oh, God. Faelan!” I can’t believe I forgot for even a second.

  “I assumed you’d accost me the moment I came into the room. I should have known something was amiss when you didn’t.”

  I shake my head, overwhelmed, confused by his shift to semicongeniality. This isn’t a side of Kieran I’ve seen before; I have to wonder if it’s real. I’d be stupid to buy into anything he says. But right now my mind is exhausted from the shock of what just happened. All my guards are down.

  “I know you don’t trust me,” he says, like he can see the turmoil on my face. “That’s fair. I’m not known for my subtlety.”

  “You slit my throat,” I say to remind myself yet again. But my voice is weak, so I add, “And broke Faelan’s neck.”

  “Whatever you think of me,” he says, a defensive bite in his tone, “the moment in the alley was necessary. I needed to see why your energy was off—any weakness in you could have been exploited by others. It was better you die than become a weapon. So I had to be sure you were truly a second Daughter of Fire. We have seen that you are.” He motions to me, like my presence proves his point. “I was hoping you’d come to trust me in time.”

  “So you made sure that you controlled my ability to use my own power?” I say, reaching up to touch my torque. “How is that supposed to make me trust you?”

  “It needed to be me to place the torque—so that no one could manipulate you.”

  “You mean, like you have? Killing me, taking my free will, and kidnapping me.”

  “I kidnapped you to help you.”

  “Said every serial killer ever.”

  “There are eyes watching,” he says, his tone getting tense, “creatures listening. I needed to speak with you away from all the spies—are you telling me you’d have come willingly?”

  “You didn’t have to break Faelan’s neck!”

  He pauses and then smirks as he says, “Snapping that plant-eating bastard’s spine was just a bonus.”

  I rise from the chair in a rush. “You’re a snake and a liar!”

  He tsks at me. “Manners, princess. I may be a snake but I’ve never lied to you. I’ve only been completely honest.” He pauses as a knock sounds on the door, then adds, “Unlike others in your life.” He holds my gaze as he waves his hand, opening the door from across the room. “Speaking of the hunter . . .”

  A tall man drags Faelan in and drops his limp body in the middle of the floor before walking back out, slamming the door behind him.

  I rush to Faelan’s side and roll him onto his back. His face is swollen, nearly unrecognizable. A giant torque is around his neck, like the one he put on me that first night, and I know that’s what’s kept him from healing completely. He’s breathing, though. He’s alive.

  “Can you hear me, Faelan?” I reach out to pull the torque off. A burst of pain runs through my arm as it sizzles against my skin.

  I stumble back, cradling my hand to my chest.

  “It’s locked,” Kieran says behind me. “Only I can take it off, since I placed it there.”

  “Then get it off him,” I say through my teeth.

  “Very well,” Kieran says, sounding disappointed but giving up far more easily than I thought he would.

  He kneels behind Faelan and draws a dagger from his boot, then pricks his thumb with it.

  Blood pearls at the tip of his finger, and he slides it over the edge of the torque, smearing red on the metal with a hiss. It unlatches with a clink and falls to the side.

  Faelan’s features immediately begin to return to normal as the swelling goes down. Several bruises remain, though, and a cut on his cheek doesn’t fully heal. He must need to feed. He probably used most of his energy to heal his spine before Kieran put the torque on him.

  He opens his eyes. “Sage?”

  “Are you okay?” I ask, brushing the hair from his forehead.

  He begins to sit up, his features clenched in pain. And then he spots Kieran only a foot away from me. He goes still. “Get back, Sage,” he says, his voice deadly.

  “Now, now,” Kieran says, his haughty tone returning in full force. “Can’t we be civil?”

  “Civility went out the window when you kidnapped us,” I say.

  He gives me a tired look. “Haven’t we been over this? I’ve told you why I brought you here.”

  I help Faelan to the chair, and then I turn on Kieran, sick of his games. “What the hell do you really want from me, Kieran?”

  His head pulls back. “I’m protecting you, obviously.”

  I release a derisive laugh.

  “Or did you miss the dead pixie in your cottage?” he asks.

  I gape at him.

  “How do you know about Niamh?” Faelan asks, his voice thick with warning.

  But I don’t care how he knows. “You know who did it,” I say, suddenly very sure. “Spit it out.”

  He goes over to the hearth, pulling out the poker and nudging the embers with it. He turns and swings the poker as if it were a sword. “I’m fairly sure it was my sister,” he says.

  Wait, what?

  “I thought Princess Mara wanted Sage for your House,” Faelan says, echoing my confusion. “Why would she hurt her?”

  “Mara is . . . shall we say, a complex creature,” Kieran says. “She’s insecure and has always been jealous of anything her brothers aren’t cruel to.” He looks at me. “She does want the power you can bring, Sage. She was going to draw you in, control you, in order to get it. But she grew impatient when she saw how attached you were to this hunter. She sees you the same way she saw Queen Lily: as a threat. So she sent the poison, wanting you to be as pliable as possible when the Emergence came around.”

  “Does she know about Lily and me?” I ask, my nerves turning raw as I realize what I’m up against.

  Kieran shakes his head. “And she can never discover it.”

  “Know what?” Faelan asks.

  But I’m not ready to explain it all to him yet. I can’t even imagine how he’d look at me if he knew that I’m a ticking time bomb. So I stay focused on Kieran. “She killed Aelia’s friend, Kieran. Why didn’t you stop her? You had to have known she was going to try something.”

  “Mara is a force, Sage,” he says. “You need to understand, she may not be more powerful than I am, but she’s far more insane, which makes her dangerous. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do.” He looks over to Faelan. “That party you brought Sage to the other night? That was meant to be a bloodworking to manipulate Sage into killing you.”

  I lower myself into the chair opposite Faelan, feeling sick at the thought.

  “She assumed that she could drive you mad, Sage. She thought it would be easy, that you were weak from living in the human world for too long. It’s why I made sure to put the torque on you right away, why I warned Faelan to get you out of the party.”

  “That was a fucked-up warning,” Faelan says, his voice angry.

  I add, “You could’ve just called and told us your sister was a homicidal maniac.”

  “Every Otherborn left on earth is aware of that,” Kieran says. “And if I had contacted you, she would have known I was working against her. She watches me like a hawk. It’s why I had to slip away. I told her I was going off to lick my wounds from your rejection of me, and she said she’d take care of it, that she’d be sure you became hers. So I watched.�
�

  A thought comes to me, a memory of the dream I had a few minutes ago, just before I woke up, how Lily was thinking of her, and how this unnamed woman in Lily’s mind wouldn’t relent until the power was hers. “Kieran, did your sister do something to my sister?”

  He nods, unsaid things in his eyes.

  “What did she do?” It suddenly seems very important.

  “You’ll have to ask Lily,” he says.

  But that’s the last thing I want to do. There’s one other source I could ask, though. Even if it terrifies me. I know that I can call to her—I’ve felt myself do it several times. And if a connection is made, it could answer everything.

  FORTY-SIX

  SAGE

  “I need lavender,” I say, stepping up to the fireplace.

  “You don’t have to do this, Sage,” Faelan says, his voice unsteady.

  He’s afraid. His goddess has been silent for hundreds of years—most of his life. And now I’m going to draw her closer.

  I hope. There’s so much that I need to know, that I need to understand.

  The old me of two weeks ago would be baffled by what I’m about to try, but in this moment I have a deep assurance. As a Daughter of Fire, this is what I would do. And I want to feel this. I want to understand. To know why . . . why she just abandoned me to that horror of a life.

  Kieran holds out a bowl of lavender buds as if he’d known I would need them. “Is this all you need?” he asks.

  I nod, taking some between my fingers.

  “Marius should be here,” Faelan says. “As leader of the House of Brighid.”

  “He’ll understand,” I say, even though I’m not sure of that. “It may not even work.”

  “It’ll work,” Kieran says, very sure. When I glance at him, he adds, “Why do you think Brighid has been silent since Lily’s fall?”

  “She only speaks to her daughters,” Faelan says, clarifying.

  I’m filled with a sense of purpose as the realization hits: I’m the link to the goddess. It’s a stunning thought. I scoop some more lavender into my palm, my hand shaking as I turn to the fire.

  “I’m ready. But I need the torque off, Kieran.”

  After a moment, his fingers brush the back of my neck, and the necklace loosens. As it falls away, everything inside me seems to grow lighter, like I’m floating from the ground, a hum filling my chest. Warmth stirs in my belly, but I try to dampen it, not wanting it to spill out. I still don’t know how strong this power is. If Lily really is inside me, then I have a feeling the energy could be monumental.

  I focus on my pulse, like Faelan taught me. On the blood weaving through me, the buzzing energy threading into my muscles.

  Then I let a small trickle emerge into my fingers, and I toss the lavender into the fire.

  The flames spark and shiver. I breathe slowly and try to speak. “Mother Brighid, hear me,” I say, my voice barely a whisper. Please hear me. “I must speak with you. It’s your daughter L—Sage.”

  Remember me? The one you abandoned?

  “I need your help,” I continue, listening to the same thing I always hear—touch, feed, control—coming through the flames. “There’s an imbalance,” I say. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Ask her how we can stop my sister,” Kieran says. “We need to somehow block her from watching us or—”

  “I got it,” I say, agitated. “Now be quiet so I can hear.”

  I take in another deep breath and release it, then say one more time, “Mother Brighid, hear me, please. I need to talk to you about so many things. What do we do about Mara? What do we do about me and . . . Lily?” I watch the dancing light, the flames sliding over the charred logs. I listen to the snapping wood. But I don’t hear any new voices. Just fire.

  Then something pops with a spark. The logs hiss.

  My daughter . . .

  I blink, not sure I really heard it. I keep staring at the flames, straining to listen.

  And the whispers come again, like a soft wind: You are more than most.

  “Mother,” I breathe, my voice breaking. I move closer, falling to my knees on the hearth.

  I reach out to the light. My fingers brush the fire, the blaze encompassing my hand, the flames sliding over the surface of my palm. The heat fills me like a caress. And no pain comes.

  Forgive me, daughter, the snapping logs say. I didn’t mean for you to be alone for so long.

  An arrow of pain spikes my throat.

  I loved you both. My own flesh. I was weak—I couldn’t choose between you and my Lily.

  “What is she saying?” Faelan asks.

  I ignore him, desperate to stay locked into the connection. “We’re in danger, Lily and I,” I say. “Mara is trying to hurt us. We need your help to stop her, to understand.”

  The light flares, and I feel the goddess’s urgency in my gut. Poison. My sister’s daughter is poison. She is chaos, she is destruction, and her weapon will strike true. You must hurry—you must keep him safe.

  “Who?” I ask. “Keep who safe?”

  Two will be lost. Only one can be saved.

  My nerves prickle. “What do you mean? What do I do?”

  One made of water who leads my flock. Another a true friend in the wood who gave all and asked for nothing in return. Hold one to you, or the other will be lost.

  Dread fills me. The flames dim, returning to embers. And I sense her fade away.

  I know who she means. The one made of water who leads—that’s Marius. And the second, a true friend—as soon as I heard the words, Lily’s memories of the wood, of his gentleness, his kindness, all filled my head.

  “We have to go to Lailoken,” I say, urgency filling my bones, thinking of him being hurt. My friend. He was my only friend for a time—Lily’s only friend.

  “Why?” Kieran and Faelan ask at the same time.

  “Brighid says that two people will be in danger, but only one can be saved.” I hesitate, knowing what Faelan will do, but I decide to tell them everything. “It’s Lailoken and Marius.”

  “Marius?” Faelan stands. “Where is he? How is he in danger?”

  “She said poison, but that’s all I know.” And if it’s anything like what happened to Niamh, there’s no time to waste.

  Faelan blanches. “We need to go. Now.” He starts for the door.

  “I’m not going with you, Faelan,” I say.

  “What? What do you mean?” He frowns. “Marius is your master; he’s mine. We have a loyalty to him.”

  “You do,” I say. “I don’t.”

  Conflict fills Faelan’s eyes.

  I move closer to him, hoping he hears me. “I have to go to Lailoken, Faelan. I know it doesn’t make sense, but to this thing deep inside me, he’s my truest friend. I can’t let anything happen to him.”

  Faelan nods. But then he shifts his feet, torn. “I can’t allow you to be harmed.”

  Kieran sets the iron poker back in the rack. “I know this old monk well enough. I’ll take her to him. You go to your master, hunter.”

  “No fucking way,” Faelan says. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”

  “Faelan.” I give him a look, not wanting to argue in front of Kieran. I understand where Faelan’s coming from, but he has to loosen the leash. “I can take care of myself now, remember. Thanks to you.”

  Kieran looks back and forth between us.

  Faelan runs a hand through his hair, then releases a growl and kicks the chair with a crack of wood. He nods, saying through his teeth, “Fine.” He steps over to Kieran, getting close and pointing a finger at his neck. “You let anything happen to her, I’ll rip your throat out.”

  Kieran smirks. “And here I thought we were becoming friends.”

  I fall to my knees in the clover, stomach heaving. I have a vague awareness of trees around me, but I’m focused on the spasms of pain racking my body.

  “Apparently you’ve never traveled like this before?” I hear Kieran saying over me. “It can be a shock t
he first time.”

  “I’m fine,” I lie. Another surge rips through me, forcing me to vomit.

  Kieran crouches nearby. “You have to breathe deep when the initial vibrations hit.” He mimics slow breathing. “In and out, three times. Long and steady. Focus on a single spot on the ground while you do it. Like you’re convincing your body you’ve arrived.”

  I nod, breathing in through my nose like he is.

  “Yes, then out.”

  I release the shaky breath slowly, focusing on a single blade of grass near my hand, and my stomach actually settles. Another spasm ripples through me, but it’s smaller and I don’t throw up this time. I breathe in and out again, pacing myself, then I try to stand. I stumble.

  Kieran takes me by the arm to steady me. “You’re good,” he says.

  I lean on him, and reality hits me. I almost burst out laughing. How did I get here, being propped up by the freaking dark prince? This guy pretty much murdered me in an alley only a week ago. His sister is apparently trying to torment me and control me, and maybe did the same to my sister. But somehow I’ve ended up walking through a magical doorway beside him.

  What the hell is wrong with my head?

  “What did Brighid say about Mara?” he asks.

  “That she’s poison.” I brush leaves from my pants. “And chaos. And destruction—my mother’s not a fan.”

  He considers that for a minute as we begin to walk. “The goddess isn’t wrong.”

  I shrug, not wanting to talk with him like I would with Faelan. I decide to ask my own questions. “So you figured out Lily’s spirit was inside me. Do you know how that happened?”

  He shakes his head. “That I don’t know. I only knew she’d be within a new vessel that could eventually help her hide for a time.”

  And now she’s stealing my body? That’s extremely creepy. “Why did you say that you had some kind of rights to me then? Was that just because of your brother marrying my sister?”

  “When she was free, Lily told me her sister would belong to me.”

  “Excuse me?” Belong? “How did she even know she’d have a sister? That would’ve been long before I got here.”