𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕎𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕙 (Book 2)

Forty

The boy's eyes were what I noticed first: a soft green with a silver ring around the pupil, similar to my own and yet not. They reminded me of Rhys's more than anything. His skin was tan like the male's next to me and his hair was just like Rhys's too. He held a familiar air around him as if I knew him. He looked like me. It was strange.

The boy's eyes slid from Rhysand in the doorway to where I stood just a step behind. A serpentine smile spread across his features as his eyes lit with excitement at the sight of me.

Rhys reached into a bag at his side—a bag he hadn't been carrying moments ago, likely summoned from his void thing. He chucked an object toward the boy, who looked no older than eight. A clank hit the floor as something white contrasted the stone. A bone. Jagged and ruined.

"The calf-bone that made the final kill after Danika trapped the Middengard Wyrm." Rhys said.

My blood chilled. What? I didn't even realize the wyrm had died by bone at all. I didn't particularly care either. I suppose there must have been bones in that dark hole as well...

"Come inside." was all the Bone carver said. His voice barely sounded like a child at all. No innocence or kindness, not even a whisper of it.

I took a step in.

"It has been an age," he said as he once again took in the sight of me, "since something new came into this world."

I raised a brow, "Hello," my words were strong.

The boy's smile was a mockery of innocence, "Are you frightened?"

"No, not really." Never lie, was what Rhysand warned. And I wasn't, if the BOne Carver wanted me scared he probably should have chosen some terrifying creature as his form and not a frail little boy.

The boy stood, but didn't move, "Danika," he murmured as he cocked his head to the side. "Dan-i-kah," he drawled the syllables of my name as if he could taste them. "Where did you go when you died?"

"A question for a question," I replied just as Rhys had instructed me to.

The Bone carver tipped his head to Rhys, "You were always smarter than your forefathers." the Bone Carver's eyes found mine again. "Tell me where you went, what you saw—and I will answer your question."

I looked at Rhys, he gave me a subtle nod but his eyes shone with wariness. What the boy had asked...

I took a breath. I couldn't afford to be weak. Not right now. But—But to remember...

The blood that stained my hands red. Collapsing to the floor. Knowing no one had noticed I'd died in the wake of my own sisters. Seeing. Seeing through Rhys's eyes. And the voice. In the end...in the end, I'd just wanted it to be over. A small mercy in a sea of agony and pain.

Rhys had gone rigid at my side as he monitored the Bone Carver as if my memories had somehow flowed past my barriers and across that bridge.

I tensed as I prepared myself for this inevitable conversation.

"I was happy when I died," I started, "Happy that my sister was alive. Happy that it would all finally end. I hadn't even realized what Amarantha had done to me because I was so worried about my sister. But when Feyre took that breath, and the adrenaline wore off, I just remember...I remember falling."

The Bone Carver's eyes grew brighter.

"I was gone before I even hit the floor. And then it was dark for a moment. Darker than anything imaginable. But there was...a thread. A rope that I pulled on. And then I was seeing. Not through my eyes, but-but through his." I dipped my head towards Rhys. "I knew I was dead. But barely anything was left of my mind. I could barely remember my name. All that was left was the thread of our bargain."