The Bone Charmer by Breeana Shields

Author:Breeana Shields
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2019-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

Bram is exactly where the bones said he would be.

He sits with his back to me on a low stone wall overlooking the city. The sun is setting and the horizon is blood orange. With his chestnut hair and his black cloak, he looks like a smudge against the vibrant sky.

If I leave now, he’ll never know I was here.

I don’t.

I take a step toward him. The toe of my boot catches a stray rock, sending it skittering across the cobbles. Bram turns, and for a fraction of a moment, his expression is utterly blank, as if his mind hasn’t caught up to his eyes. And then surprise washes over his features. “Saskia,” he says, “what are you doing here?” He moves to make room for me and I sit beside him.

“I was worried about you,” I say.

He cocks his head to one side. A question.

“Second Sight.”

His expression changes. He looks at me warily. “You saw me?”

“I did,” I say. “You were training. You got hurt.”

“I get hurt every day. That shouldn’t be a shock under the circumstances.”

My cheeks heat. I look away and study the city that lies beneath us, at the lights that spill across the valley, and wonder how many people are laughing at this very moment. How many are mourning? How much of what’s happening has a Bone Charmer already seen?

“Is your leg feeling better?”

“My leg?” He shifts on the wall. “I didn’t hurt my leg.”

“You didn’t?” I turn toward him and he laughs at my surprise. The sound is deep, melodious. It makes my stomach rise and fall.

“Maybe you need more practice,” he says, nudging my shoulder with his.

“Probably,” I say. But then realization settles on me like a layer of frost. The intensifier. Latham said it would increase my range. Maybe what I saw hasn’t happened yet. “Is there a Bone Breaker with a jagged tattoo on his neck? One that looks like a saw?”

“That would be Viktor,” Bram says. “He’s built like a mountain and has a temperament of a bear who’s just been shot in the hindquarters with an arrow.”

I smile. “Not a great disposition for a Breaker.”

“Oh, you know us Breakers. We’re all brutes.” He says it lightly, but there’s a note of bitterness in his voice.

The air between us chills. And it’s all the more biting because of the warmth that came before.

I find a loose thread at the hem of my sleeve and wrap it around my finger. “Be careful of him,” I say.

Bram’s gaze finds mine. “I don’t need your advice.” His voice is soft in the way a snake moving through the grass is soft—quiet, but still dangerous. It stirs up memories of the same words coming from my own mouth. I resented it every time my mother gave me a warning based on a reading. Her admonitions always felt like ropes tying me down, binding me to one path or another. And now, as I look into Bram’s defiant eyes, I wonder if she felt the same helpless sensation I do now.

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