As if reading my mind, he hurls the chain off the cliff. It rattles as it tumbles, far, far into the sea below. I widen my eyes in question. Out of everything he could do right now, this isby farthe last thing I expected.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I know how much you hate the chain,” he murmurs. “Don’t make me regret tossing it.”
Heart pounding, I reach up and brush his throat. He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t pull away. Instead, he holds my gaze, like he expected my touch, and he wants to show me he’s not afraid I might turn it against him.
His skin is softer than I expect, and warm. I have the sudden urge to wrap my hand fully around his throat, just to see how he would react. I wet my lips, my eyes darting to the strong curveof his neck, the powerful line of his shoulders. My blood hums in my veins, burning me up from the inside out.
I could do it. Not to speak the killing spell, but just to feel the pulse of his heartbeat beneath my fingers, to feel him swallow against my palm.
But then the sky bellows with thunder again, breaking through the moment.
Cheeks hot as a furnace, I release his throat, and my hand drops heavily to my side.
“We should get moving,” we say in unison.
I laugh. He does, too. Then his eyes widen. He grabs my arms and yanks me behind him, his other hand flying to the pommel of his sword. Just beyond him, the firebird rises from the nest, her wings spreading wide. Flames curl from the corners of her beak. An ear-splitting shriek tears through the air.
And then she’s gone, plunging down the side of the ridge in a whirl of feathers and fire. I dart past Taliesin. My feet find the edge of the nest as I lean over the drop, my hands gripping sharp twigs as I track her descent. She falls only for a breathless moment before catching herself against the rock face, her claws biting into stone.
Then she vanishes into a crevice.
My heart pounds, my fingers tightening on the brittle nest. “Do you think she’s angry at me for pushing death back?” I ask, thinking of Osian.
“No.” Taliesin appears beside me, one knee braced on the nest, the other bent as he surveys the world below. “I think she wants us to follow her.”
16
“Look.” His finger traces a fork in the path. One branch drops away, down and down toward the sea, while the other winds onward along the ridge’s summit. Neither appeals to me, but at least the higher path keeps us above the poisonous spray.
“She screamed at us and flew off,” I say, frowning. “That doesn’t say, ‘follow me’ in my mind.”
He holds out a hand, the ice in his eyes sparking with something fierce. “Just trust me. Can you do that?”
“No, I don’t think I can.” I arch a brow. “Can you trust me?”
He chuckles. “Point taken.”
Taliesin says nothing more to convince me. He simply stands there, his hand still outstretched, his piercing gaze steady on my face. And despite every objection rising to my tongue, I slide my fingers into his and allow him to lead me across the nest, twigs crunching underfoot.
Other than the chains, he’s done nothing against me. I know I can’t trust him—not fully—but I don’t think he means me harm. If anything, he’s done his damndest to keep me alive. More than once.
Still, I must keep my guard up. I haven’t survived so long in a world of endless warfare by being foolish.
The descent takes longer than I expect. Every twenty or thirty steps, I pause and lean against the safety of the rock face to scan the path ahead. The crevice never looks any closer. Soon, sweat dampens the back of my neck beneath my curtain of dark hair, and I twist it into a braid crown to get it off my skin. Taliesin watches me keenly as I weave the strands together, like I’m an exotic creature from another world.
At long last, we reach the crevice, which turns out to be the opening to a cave rather than the thin slice it appeared to be from afar. Darkness pools within, shielded from the glow of the setting sun by the ridge-line. I try not to think about what it means, that night has arrived before we could get off this ridge.
At least we’ve found shelter…but my heart still pounds out a warning. We don’t know what lies within.
Taliesin steps in front of me and moves into the cave. With a deep breath, I follow, casting an uncertain glance over my shoulder at the mainland. The green fields glow beneath the sinking sun, but shadows stretch long and dark, like those fingers of death I felt reaching for me. And still, it reaches. No matter where I will go, it will follow.
I shudder and turn away. Even if death is watching, it can’t reach me. It never has before, no matter how many times I’ve interfered with its taking of souls.
The firebird waits inside. The moment I step in, sparks fly from her open mouth. They catch at once, and flames engulf a pile of twigs on the ground. Firelight spills across the looming walls, revealing lines carved into the stone and painted over in white. I stare, my pulse jumping. Those are spell words.Mywords.
I point at ‘Marwolaeth’ but don’t speak it aloud, if only not to tempt fate. I have to wrap my hand around someone’s throat forthe magic to work, but…something about this place feels wrong. A skittering unease crawls down my spine. If the magic were ever to behave differently anywhere, it would be here.
