Foxheart by Claire Legrand

Author:Claire Legrand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

.28.

LET’S LEAVE THE CREEPY CAVE

“These are not the bones of animals, Fox,” said Quicksilver calmly, though calm was not at all what she felt.

“Indeed they’re not.” Fox sniffed a human skull, nudged it with his snout. “Some have been here a long time. Others . . . not so long.”

Quicksilver felt suddenly very aware of her own skeleton. Such a fragile thing it was, kept in place by a sack of skin. She swallowed. “Well, how are we supposed to—?”

She whirled, at the same moment Fox did. They had both felt the same tug—and it felt somehow . . . mischievous.

Here. Almost.

Quicksilver’s pack shuddered and jerked; the hare skeleton cried out shrilly.

Anastazia plopped down in the midst of the bones as though preparing to have a picnic. When she caught Quicksilver and Fox staring at her, she smiled and waved.

Quicksilver gritted her teeth. “Leave her for the moment. I think we’re close.”

She took a step, and then stopped—for there, right before her feet, appeared a skeleton. Smaller than the others, more delicate, and glowing a bright blue.

Quicksilver crouched, peering at the skull’s huge eye sockets, elegant jaw, and sharp fangs. A cat. The cat, one of the First Monsters. The power drifting off it, reverberating up through her own bones, was unmistakable—hot and thrumming.

And though it was no longer alive, Quicksilver could have sworn it had just winked at them.

She exchanged a glance with Fox as she bent to retrieve the skeleton. “That . . . was easy.”

But just as her fingers brushed the skeleton, it vanished. The bones in her pack slammed themselves against her with a hiss.

Quicksilver jumped back. “Where did it go? I had it!”

There. Fox pointed with his snout at a spot a few paces away, where the cat skeleton reappeared, twinkling with satisfaction. They ran for it, but the piles of bones on the cavern floor came midway up Quicksilver’s calves, slowing her down. The sharp bits of broken bones scraped her legs, snagged her skirts. She kicked them in frustration. Fox darted ahead with a soft flash of light, swooped down—

But the skeleton disappeared once more.

Quicksilver growled. “What is it doing?”

“Anastazia said they might be spelled to move around from place to place, to avoid being discovered,” Fox reminded her.

“Well, how are we supposed to—?” But then the skeleton reappeared only a few paces away. “Fox!” she cried, flinging him after it.

They chased the cat around the chamber, Quicksilver hissing every foul word she could think of under her breath. Every time they got close, the skeleton disappeared and then reappeared somewhere else. Quicksilver coughed, her throat full of dust. She was ready to sit down, right there in all those bones, and scream—when the cat skeleton appeared at her feet.

She froze, breathing hard. Fox. Careful, now.

Fox, now in his mouse form, inched his way closer. Quicksilver crouched as slowly as she could. They reached for the skeleton at the same moment, and this time, when Quicksilver put her hand on the skull, it stayed put.

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