With a ragged swallow, Neve followed.
The cold air of the Shadowlands seemed almost fresh after the close quarters of the cottage. The three-eyed goat bleated in the yard, this time with a sound like shattering glass.
Solmir didn’t face her, but when she approached, he held out the bone. “You take this.” His voice was flat, inflectionless. “Only the bone of a god can kill another, and they must be gods that were made in the same way.”
It was smooth and heavy in her hand, but weighed less than Neve thought it should. “So it could kill you?”
“Don’t sound too excited.” Solmir started forward. “I’m not a god anymore.”
The goat bleated again, the sound of two blades meeting, and Neve turned to look at it, balancing the bone in her hand.
She thought of power, of need.
Solmir’s eyes tracked from her to the goat, to the bone twisting in her grip. “Not much power,” he said softly, the answer to a question she hadn’t the stomach to ask. “But some.”
“She said we would need it,” Neve whispered.
A nod.
“Will this thing kill it?”
“Lesser beasts aren’t gods; they can be vanquished by any god-bone, not just one from a creature made in the same way,” Solmir said. “It’s only gods themselves that get particular.”
She nodded, the pad of her finger absently rubbing at the smooth ivory. “Can you take more?”
His lips skinned back from his teeth. “I can always take more.”
Cautiously, Neve stepped toward the goatlike lesser beast. It bleated when she slammed the bone into its throat, and it sounded like a woman’s scream.
Chapter Six
Neve
Neither of them spoke as they pushed through the inverted trees again, growing so close together Neve could use them like handholds as she picked her way over the uneven ground. Walking was much easier in boots.
Up ahead, Solmir didn’t move with the predator-like grace she’d grown to expect. He seemed shaky, almost, like someone fighting off the first throes of a fever. His veins flickered sporadic darkness, fingers flexing out and then in again, as if something was trying to work out of them.
She eyed him warily. He’d said he could always take more magic, but it looked like it wasn’t as easy as he’d made it sound.
Something almost like concern rose in her chest. Neve hated that. Solmir didn’t deserve her concern.
Still, he was the only thing that seemed even marginally safe in the entire Shadowlands. And her only source of magic, if she didn’t want to twist into something monstrous.
Another quake moved through the ground, making her cling to the trunk of an inverted tree to keep from falling. Ahead, Solmir did the same, steadying himself with one black-flickering hand against pale bark. When the earth settled, he spared her a glance to make sure she was in one piece before heading off again.
But then he stumbled, just slightly, disrupting his precise speed. He stopped, turned to face her, jaw drawn tight and hand pressed against his middle. His eyes were cast downward, but when Neve advanced a step, they flickered up to hers. She froze.
The whites of Solmir’s eyes had gone completely dark.
Neve wanted to back away, to hold up her hands between them as a paltry shield. Instead, she frowned, hoping it covered her fear. “Are you going to pass out?”
Sharp and prim; she kept her concern behind her teeth. It was practical to be concerned, really. The last thing Neve needed was to be left in the Shadowlands alone.
“No, Neverah, I’m not going to pass out.” The flickers of shadow along his veins had lessened, but his eyes were still new-moon black around the blazing ocean of his irises. He turned on his heel, resting his back against the trunk of a tree, rubbing at the scars on his forehead. The movement made a flash of that strange tattoo show through his shirt again. “Magic is a slippery thing to hold. Especially when you have to keep it from subsuming your soul.”
Her brow arched. “So you’re in a battle for your soul as we speak? Rather melodramatic.”
“Truly.” He pushed off the tree with a slight grimace, rings glinting as he swept back his hair. Darkness still fluttered along his limbs, but it disappeared even as Neve watched, shadow going wherever he kept it. “I’ll be just fine in a moment or two. Don’t waste any worry on me. I know you have a very limited supply for anyone who isn’t Redarys.”
Her brows slashed down, but Neve didn’t reply.
His long hair trailed, smoke-colored, as Solmir moved through the trees again, every step seeming stronger. Neve chewed her lip a moment before following. “Where are we going?”