2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

freely flowing past the mental shields I’d made sure were intact this morning. And I
wondered if he thought I’d give up then and there.
I bunched my hands into fists.
I had lived; I had gotten out. I would get out today.
“I heard the crack,” I said. Rhys’s head whipped toward me. “I heard the crack when
she broke my neck. It was in my ears, but also inside my skull. I was gone before I felt
anything more than the first lash of pain.”
The Bone Carver’s violet eyes seemed to glow brighter.
“And then it was dark. A different sort of dark than this place. But there was a …
thread,” I said. “A tether. And I yanked on it—and suddenly I could see. Not through my
eyes, but—but his,” I said, inclining my head toward Rhys. I uncurled the fingers of my
tattooed hand. “And I knew I was dead, and this tiny scrap of spirit was all that was left of
me, clinging to the thread of our bargain.”
“But was there anyone there—were you seeing anything beyond?”
“There was only that bond in the darkness.”
Rhysand’s face had gone pale, his mouth a tight line. “And when I was Made anew,” I
said, “I followed that bond back—to me. I knew that home was on the other end of it.
There was light then. Like swimming up through sparkling wine—”
“Were you afraid?”
“All I wanted was to return to—to the people around me. I wanted it badly enough I
didn’t have room for fear. The worst had happened, and the darkness was calm and quiet.
It did not seem like a bad thing to fade into. But I wanted to go home. So I followed the
bond home.”
“There was no other world,” the Bone Carver pushed.
“If there was or is, I did not see it.”
“No light, no portal?”
Where is it that you want to go? The question almost leaped off my tongue. “It was only
peace and darkness.”
“Did you have a body?”
“No.”
“Did—”
“That’s enough from you,” Rhysand purred—the sound like velvet over sharpest steel.
“You said a question for a question. Now you’ve asked … ” He did a tally on his fingers.
“Six.”
The Bone Carver leaned back against the wall and slid to a sitting position. “It is a rare
day when I meet someone who comes back from true death. Forgive me for wanting to