Silver within the Bone Peeks Into the World of Magical Treasure-Hunters

Want so as to add a jolt of spine-tingling terror to your day? io9’s obtained an unique besides from Silver within the Bone, the newest from best-selling creator Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds) that’ll match the invoice fairly properly. The e-book is a couple of reluctant treasure hunter, and the scene options an encounter with… properly, you’ll need to learn on to see!

First up, right here’s a abstract of Silver within the Bone:

Tamsin Lark didn’t ask to be a Hollower. As a mortal with no magical expertise, she was by no means meant to interrupt into historical crypts, or compete with sorceresses and Cunningfolk for the treasures inside. But after her thieving foster father disappeared with out a lot as a goodbye, it was the one technique to hold herself—and her brother, Cabell—alive.

Ten years later, rumors are swirling that her guardian vanished with a strong ring from Arthurian legend. A run-in together with her rival Emrys ignites Tamsin’s hope that the ring might free Cabell from a curse that threatens each of them. But they aren’t the one ones who covet the ring.

As phrase spreads, grasping Hollowers begin circling, and lots of would kill to have it for themselves. While Emrys is the final individual Tamsin would select to associate with, she wants all the assistance she will get to edge out her opponents within the race for the ring. Together, they dive headfirst right into a vipers’ nest of darkish magic, exposing a lethal secret with the ability to awaken ghosts of the previous and shatter her final hope of saving her brother. . . .

Here’s the complete cowl, making its media debut right here on io9, adopted by the shriek-worthy excerpt.

The group unfold out as we made our manner by the bushes.

Neve was at my again, her wand clutched in her hand. Cabell fell in place beside me, retrieving my axe from the place it had been tied to my touring pack.

I felt hyperaware of every step I took, not simply due to the greedy mud but additionally the faint jangle of my belongings.

“There should be villages scattered around the isle,” Neve whispered.

“Are there any other landmarks we can look for?” I requested as quietly as I might.

“There’s a tower at the center of Avalon,” Neve stated. “That’s where its order of priestesses is said to reside. The nine sisters.”

Right. Right, I’d seen that talked about in a handful of the Immortalities, although, because the years had gone on and the generations of sorceresses had grown extra distant from their ancestral dwelling, the main points across the priestesses had turn into simply as inaccurate as most fairy tales.

“I’m starting to think we’re the only ones here,” Cabell muttered. “At least the only ones still breathing.”

As he moved forward of me, my abdomen cramped with the fetid scent, however there was nothing in it to throw up. I didn’t see Cabell by the wall of pale air till I’d almost collided together with his again.

He was shaking.

“Tamsin,” Cabell breathed out, his lips barely transferring. “Don’t move.”

My eyes slid left, following his line of sight, till, lastly, I noticed it too. A shifting shadow among the many bushes.

There was no moonlight to light up its type, however my sight had adjusted to the darkness, and even our distance couldn’t disguise the chilly savagery of the creature tearing on the carcass of what had as soon as been a horse.

It had the close to form of a person, however stretched and bent, its joints all harsh, unforgiving angles. The hairless limbs had been overly lengthy and spindly, the way in which a spider’s is likely to be. For one horrible second, I couldn’t inform if it was filthy rags or tattered flesh hanging from them.

What the hell is that?

Emrys and Neve got here up behind us, their footsteps smooth as they moved over the diseased lichen and unsteady floor. I held out each my arms, stopping them. Emrys despatched me a questioning look, however I solely pointed to his head lamp.

I knew the second he noticed the creature too. His physique turned inflexible. Holding his breath, he reached up slowly and clicked the sunshine off.

The creature’s head shot up, blood and stringy muscle dripping from its mouth. Disgust and terror flooded my physique, and any instincts I needed to run, to struggle, to do something apart from stand there vanished like breath within the air.

The creature’s face was sunken with decay, leaving a void of flesh and coloration, save for the white of its glowing eyes, and its bloodstained enamel. Teeth it had used to tear the flesh and muscle and innards of the horse away, decreasing it to clean-picked bones in a pool of the animal’s personal blood.

The creature rose, dropping the leg from its mouth. Its limbs unfolded like an insect’s, awakening some deep, primal worry in me. The mist rolled between us, however when it thinned once more, the creature was gone.

“Where did it go?” Cabell whispered, respiratory closely.

“What the hell is that?” one of many Hollowers shouted. “What is it doing—?”

A piercing bark answered, not half as horrible as those that answered again from the darkness that surrounded us on all sides.

There was a soul-curdling scream. The Hollower’s head lamp beam vanished. Then one other.

And one other.

“Get back to the boats!” Septimus bellowed. “Now!”

Cabell and Neve rushed ahead first, their toes slapping by puddles of water and sludge. Emrys stood stock-still, staring on the spot the place the creature had been, rooted so firmly in place I needed to seize his arm and yank with all my may to get him transferring once more.

Another head lamp gone. Another.

The mist swirled round us in chaotic patterns because the get together rushed in each course. I slammed into Neve, who had turned again on the water’s edge. I craned my neck round, following her terrified gaze.

A head, hairless and slick with sludge, rose from the putrid depths. Its eyes gleamed silver as they caught the sunshine of a head lamp.

And then it wasn’t one, however many. The filmy water bubbled as they emerged from the darkish depths and floated towards us.

Cabell grabbed my shoulder, drawing me nearer to his facet as he held out my axe. “What the hell do we do?”

I shook my head, choking on phrases that wouldn’t come. There was no manner again to the barges. No manner ahead.

There was solely the slick crackle of flesh hire from bone, and the helpless screams as one after the other the lights vanished, and the mist devoured us entire.

Excerpt from Alexandra Bracken’s Silver within the Bone reprinted by permission of Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Alexandra Bracken’s Silver within the Bone can be launched April 4; you’ll be able to pre-order a duplicate here.

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