Page 48 of The Bone Season

It came out of nowhere. As I struggled against her grip, a dizziness rushed over me, as if I had been turned on my head. The sickening loss of control before fainting – that was the only thing that compared.

It took me a moment too long to realise. My aura was pulling towards hers,intoit. Her eyes brightened, turning a livid red.

‘Aludra,’ Warden said sharply.

She glanced at him. I tasted metal, felt the wetness on my cheeks.

Now I understood.

I understood why their eyes changed.

Aludra released me, and I fell to the floor, my legs giving way at once. I lifted a cold hand to my cheek, finding blood on my fingertips.

‘All this to protect an amaurotic,’ Aludra said. ‘This boy would have seen you strung up by the neck in London. Even if he could move now, do you think he would lift a finger to save you?’

A cool gleam caught my eye. The knife, the one I had thrown at her face, almost near enough to touch. I could put her eye out.

Aludra spotted it. She pinned my wrist with her boot, then leaned down to pick up the knife.

‘A pitiful display,’ she said. ‘You are not even fit for the Rookery.’

‘I quite agree,’ Nashira said. ‘We cannot reform them all, after all.’

‘No,’ Seb choked out. ‘Stop it, please. Paige!’

Aludra knelt and held the blade under my jaw. Jaxon, Nick, the others – none of them would ever know why I had disappeared.

The knife bit hotly into my skin.

And suddenly, I was in the æther.

In my spirit form, I saw without eyes. A silent void, studded with starry orbs. I knew that each one represented a dreamscape. It would be suicidal to attack Aludra – her mind was very old, very strong – but her arrogance had thinned her defences.

I flew into her.

She wasn’t prepared for how it would feel. That was how I got so far. I cut straight to her abyssal zone, the second layer of her mind.

Aludra rallied quickly. Her defences leapt back up. I was thrown out with the force of a bullet, and then I was back in my own body, my head in agony. I fought to breathe, staring at the ceiling.

I had done it again.

My hand went straight to my throat. Aludra had only left a small cut. Beside me, she was lying on her side. Blinded by pain, I lurched to my feet – a hunted animal, surrounded, scrabbling out of a trap.

The chamber leaned around me. The Rephs were disembodied eyes, all the candles blurred and quivering. When Seb called my name, I turned on the spot. It tapped into a memory, to hear someone calling like that.

Finn, don’t leave me.

I took a few drunken steps, only to lurch into Warden. He caught me by the arm. If he was human, I might have thought he was steadying me, but I recoiled from him, panic flooding my body. Almost against my will, I tried the same attack. This time, I didn’t even reach the æther. I buckled to the floor and stayed there.

Sorry, Liss.

Nearby, Aludra looked up at Nashira, nodded once. Nashira gazed at me.

‘So it is as I thought,’ she said softly. ‘You are a dreamwalker.’

Silence reigned for some time. Finally, a Reph spoke: ‘Congratulations, blood-sovereign.’ I closed my eyes. ‘It has been a long search.’

‘Indeed,’ Nashira said.

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