Secret in the Stone by Kamilla Benko

Author:Kamilla Benko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

CHAPTER

18

Claire’s breath turned to ice in her throat. She choked.

The creature landed on the ground, silent as shadows, long limbs folding as it absorbed the impact. Unable to yell a warning, unable to breathe, Claire watched as the monster slowly stood. Though slightly human in shape, all its limbs were too long to be human, and the misty blackness that rolled off it obscured its features. She had the sense that if she were to sink her fists into its cloak, her hands would push through, as though it were made of ink, until she hit the hard skeletal bone of the thing beneath.

Nearby, someone screamed. It sounded a little bit like Sophie, but in that moment, a thick darkness flooded all of Claire’s senses—her ears, eyes, nose, mouth. The cold wasn’t just the cold of a winter’s night or the cold of a northern ocean. It was the cold that belonged only to those alien, barren stretches of space.

It was a cold that wrapped. That suffocated. That dragged her under.

It was the cold of absolute fear …

And then, just as suddenly, the cold lifted.

“Claire! Claire! ” Sophie was calling her name, as if she’d said it many times before, and Claire was only now responding. She realized she was no longer standing, but was lying flat on her back, the leaves gently cushioning her.

I’m fine, Claire tried to say, but her tongue felt heavy, as if it had indeed turned to ice.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sophie asked, her voice sliding a scale up. Claire felt a slight pressure on her wrist as her sister took her pulse. Her sister’s fingers were deliciously warm after the extreme cold of the wraith. She tried to speak again. “Sophie?”

“Claire!”

Sophie’s thumb fell away as she threw herself around Claire, wrapping her into a feverish hug.

“What happened to the wraiths?” Claire managed to mumble.

Sophie pulled back, and Claire saw that her hair was wild, her eyes bloodshot. And abandoned next to her was a sword.

“Fireblood,” Sophie said, her voice strained. “Aquila must have done something to it, because as soon as I took it out of the tent and into the moonlight, it began to glow the same way the ReflecTent does. I followed your sapphire to the clearing. I saw you about to play the flute, and a wraith just came from the sky—out of nowhere! It was like it was in slow motion. It landed on you, knocking you to the ground. And then without thinking, I ran at it with Fireblood.”

“You were in a swordfight with a wraith?” Claire asked, impressed.

Sophie looked a little embarrassed. “I think I surprised it. I kind of just poked it and it ran, like shadows before light. I don’t know why, exactly, but at least it’s gone and you’re … you’re …” She dragged the back of her hand across her nose.

“Sophie—are you crying?”

“No,” she said, sniffing. “Okay, fine. A little. Don’t do something like that again! What were you thinking, sneaking away like that?!”

“It

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