Page 89 of The Bone Season

‘Don’t insult me,’ Jaxon said, with disdain. ‘Farther from the anchor than the cradle from the grave.’ He took a sip of his mecks. ‘Not that those two states are far apart, but you understand my meaning.’

I wasn’t sure I did.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Are you talking about the nosebleeds?’

‘Yes, the nosebleeds – fascinating.’ He clasped his hands on the table, his eyes alive with a sort of agitated intelligence. ‘Anything else?’

‘Headaches,’ I said. ‘Sometimes migraines, if I’m angry. Once I think I made someone faint.’

‘And how do you feel when it happens?’

‘Tired and sick, mostly.’

‘I see.’ He sat back, scrutinising me. ‘How old are you?’

‘Sixteen.’

‘Old enough to leave school, then. Do you plan to apply for the University?’

‘No fear.’

‘You seem very sure. Then again, I doubt I would have cared for higher education in Scion. Alas, I was denied the chance to go to school at all. Without a degree, it can be hard to find well-paid work in the citadel.’

‘I’ll take my chances. I’d rather die than spend one more year in that place.’

‘Brave girl.’ The corner of his mouth pulled up. ‘Do you have any idea what clairvoyance is, Paige?’

I shook my head.

‘It is one of the gentler and prettier names for the noble art of unnaturalness, as named by Scion,’ he informed me. ‘One who practises it is properly called a clairvoyant. Do you speak any French?’

‘Yes.’

‘Translate for us, if you please. Two words,clairandvoyant.’

‘Clear seeing,’I said.

I might not like arithmetic, but I excelled at French.

‘Precisely,’ Jaxon said. ‘A clairvoyant is one who sees clearly, perceiving truths that lie beyond the reach of the five senses. Truths hidden from others.’

‘Hidden where?’

He blew out the candle in the middle of the table.

‘In the æther.’

I watched him through the trailing smoke.

‘The æther,’ Jaxon said, ‘is the source of all spirits – ergo, the cradle of being. We come from it; we live our lives alongside and within it; in death, we pass back into it, shedding our physical selves for good. It is knit with the living world, as much as air – a realm, invisible to most, thronged by the spirits of the dead.’

He had just uttered more treason than I had ever heard in my life.

I was drinking my first coffee with a pair of unnaturals.

‘Paige,’ Nick said. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine, but … sorry, I don’t think I fully understood any of that.’

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