Jade Bones's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Jade Bones pushed through the wet ferns, her iridescent vines tugging her forward like a leash. Three days of this pull. Three dead cousins behind her. The sorcerer was close, and she would put a blade through his throat before the week ended. A man staggered out of the trees and dropped at her feet. Vines just like hers wrapped his arms. Same shimmer. Same weight. Her stomach turned to stone. She knelt. A scaled cat-creature with folded wings padded behind him, whining low. In the man's fist was a cracked compass, its needle spinning wild. A patch of glowing flowers bloomed where his blood touched the dirt. Behind him, through the trees, she saw the carved arch of a small stone shrine — his last shelter. "Vael," he whispered. The sorcerer's name. "He knows. He's waiting." His chest stopped moving. Jade closed his eyes. She took the broken compass from his hand. Her bloodline was not three dead. It was four. And the man she hunted now knew she was coming.