Page 22 of The Bones of the Cursed

“The caves,” he blurts, eyes wide, sweat beading on his forehead. “They’ve been coming from the caves.”

“Why have they been using the caves?”

The man squeezes his eyes shut. “Dunno. All I know is I was out hunting and a large group of ghouls went into the caves and never came back out. Could be living in there. How am I supposed to know? I wasn’t going to follow them.”

I mull over his words for a moment. “You said they were in a large group? Did anybody seem to be in charge?”

The man gives me a questioning stare. “Like who? Ghouls are dumb as bricks.”

I shrug. “Anybody. Did anybody come by before the ghouls or even shortly after?”

The man shakes his head and then stops, eyes widening. “Wait. Yeah. There was a man in a cloak. Came by about ten minutes after the ghouls.”

“What did he look like?”

He shrugs. “He was wearing a cloak. Completely covered.”

I toss the coin towards the bartender, who hasn’t batted an eye since I sat down. He just continued drying the glasses laid out before him. “Another pint for my friend here.”

I stand, smacking Sal on the back before sauntering back out into the warm golden glow of the morning sun.

10

- ALANIS -

THE NEWCOMERS

If what Siveral told us is true, I think we are well and truly screwed.

I look around the field and into the dark forest beyond. It looks a lot less menacing during the day. The sunlight casts a golden glow throughout the trees.

I glance at Hannah, who seems as if she is about to pass out or throw up. Maybe even both. I can feel Kailu and Siveral’s eyes on me, just waiting for me to speak.

If I’m honest, I don’t really know what to say right now.

I take a deep breath and try to clear my mind of the intrusive thoughts attempting to overwhelm me—thoughts of death and dying, curses and hell. Thoughts of my brother suffering while I stand here, too scared to venture into the forest.

I mentally slap myself. I need to pull it together.

“All right,” I say at last. “No, none of that sounds like something we want to walk into if it can be avoided. So now what?”

“The soldiers who chased after the ghoul lost track of it,” Kailu says. “We’re back to having no leads. I say we continue with our original plan and head to the patrol spot your brotherwas last seen in. Maybe we’ll find a new theory along the way.”

It seems as good a plan as any, so I gather my things and go wait by Zephyr, Kailu’s beautiful horse. “Hi boy, are you ready to do a lot of walking? I promise to get you treats at our next stop.”

I lay my forehead against his and enjoy the way he nuzzles into me.

“Stop trying to make my horse like you more than me, you insufferable woman.”

“I don’t need to try. He already does.” I scoff and mimic a new mother I saw at the market once, asking her baby if she wanted apples or oranges: “Don’t you, you good boy? Oh, yes, you do!”

When Zephyr bobs his head up and down, I grin and Kailu growls, deep and low, and swings up into the saddle without another word. He kicks one foot free of the stirrup, then holds his hand out to me. I’m not looking forward to sitting so close to him for hours yet again, but I take his hand, stick my boot into the stirrup, and push up off the ground to settle on the saddle behind him. When I wrap my arms around his waist, I try to keep my grip as loose as is safe. I learned the hard way my first time in the saddle with him to hold on tight if I don’t want to fall right off. I hate having to be so close to him.

Yep, I don’t like it one bit.

I don’t like feeling his heat on the front of my body or feeling his stupid muscles flex with every movement Zephyr makes.

It’s really a punishment for me, I think, how unbearable it is.

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