Songs of Bone (Sin Eater Tales Book 2) by J. R. Snyder

Author:J. R. Snyder [Snyder, J. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Whalesong and Bone

The silence lasted somewhere between a mere heartbeat and a lifetime. Asher felt nothing at all, merely existing and not, hovering between worlds. A sudden faraway screech rended the nothingness and Asher’s eyes snapped open. He gasped, sucking in a great quantity of salt water. Asher’s panicked brain barely registered that the potion hadn’t worked. He took another involuntary breath of the water, feeling the salty tang surge down his throat. He struggled against the weight on his chest, flapping his arms pointlessly. His hand knocked into something hard and he groped in the dark, saving his staff before it descended to the depths, unsure why it was so important that he grab it. It would be no use to him when he was dead.

As he felt the smooth wood of the staff in his hand, Asher took two more breaths and realized that he still hadn’t died. The burning sensation left his chest even as he continued to breathe the water. He looked up. A shadow darker than the surroundings loomed ahead, getting larger as it glided toward him.

“Hello?” Asher said mumbled, holding his staff before him, knowing it was useless; without living Trace to pull from, his magic was severely limited.

A jet-black raven rushed toward him, flapping her wings and shrieking the same screech that had awoken him earlier. Aethon, weightless in the water, pulled Rane along behind her as he clung to her talons, his eyes wide in awe.

“Grab on!” Rane shouted as they got close.

Asher threw out a hand and grabbed onto Rane’s boot as they raced to the surface. It was the purest form of magic he had ever experienced, Asher thought, as they flew through the Void, neither living nor dead. Rane looked down at him with the same look of amazement mingled with fear. Asher felt elated, knowing the potion had indeed worked and that they had completed the first step of their quest.

Within moments, they broke the surface of the water. Aethon circled their heads once, then soared soundlessly into the dark sky of the Void with a flap of her wings, disappearing against the blackness. They sat there a moment, bobbing gently in the water that wasn’t water.

“We’re alive,” Rane said. “It worked.”

Asher smiled faintly. “We are. Well, kind of.” He hesitated. “How was it for you?”

Rane frowned. “The most surreal thing I’ve ever experienced. Aethon grabbed me before I even woke up. My eyes opened and I saw you in the distance and figured it must’ve worked.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you of my plan earlier,” Asher said. “I couldn’t be sure we’d need the potions until we got here and found the Passage.”

“No need to apologize. I trusted in your magic. The day I lost this—” Rane held up his left arm that was missing a hand, “—was scarier by far.”

Asher let out a single humorless laugh. “Well, you handled it better than I did and it wasn’t even my first time.”

They both turned and looked at the hulking shape in the distance, glowing with a pale light.

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