Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)(61)

"We can rest here," Mark said. He pointed to a rise of ground opposite, whose top was hidden by a number of stone cairns. "Those will give some shelter, and some cover."

Emma frowned. "I hear water," she said. "Is there a stream?"

"You know we can't drink the water here," Julian said, as she picked her way downhill, toward the sound of fluid bubbling over rocks and around tree roots.

"I know, but we could at least wash off in it-" Her voice died. There was a stream, of sorts, bisecting the valley between the two low hills, but the water wasn't water. It was scarlet, and thick. It moved sluggishly, slow and red and dripping, between the black trunks of trees.

" 'All the blood that's shed on earth, runs through the springs of that country,' " said Mark, at her elbow. "You quoted that to me."

Julian moved to the edge of the blood stream and knelt down. With a quick gesture, he dipped his fingers in. They came out scarlet. "It clots," he said, frowning in mixed fascination and disgust, and wiped his hand off on the grass. "Is it really-human blood?"

"That's what they say," said Mark. "Not all the rivers of faerie are like this, but they claim that the blood of the murdered dead of the human world runs through the streams and creeks and springs here in the woods."

"Who is they?" Julian asked, standing up. "Who says that?"

"Kieran," said Mark simply.

"I know the story too," said Cristina. "There are different versions of the legends, but I have heard many and most say that the blood is human, mundane blood." She backed up, took a running jump, and landed on the other side of the bloody stream with some feet to spare.

The rest of them followed her, and trudged up the hill to the flat, grassy top, which commanded a view of the surrounding countryside. Emma suspected the cairns of crumbled stones had once been a watchtower of some sort.

They unrolled the blankets they had and spread out coats, huddling under them for warmth. Mark curled up and immediately fell asleep. Cristina lay down more cautiously, her body wrapped in her dark blue coat, her long hair spilling over the arm on which her head rested.



       
         
       
        

Emma found a place for herself in the grass, folding her gear jacket up to make a pillow. She had nothing to wrap herself in, and shivered when her skin touched the cold ground as she reached to balance Cortana carefully on a nearby stone.

"Emma." It was Julian, rolling over toward her. He'd been so still she'd thought he was asleep. She didn't even remember lying down this close to him. In the dawn light, his eyes glowed like sea glass. "I've got a spare blanket. Take it."

It was soft and gray, a thin coverlet that used to lie across the foot of his bed. Forcibly, Emma pushed away memories of waking up with it bunched around her feet, yawning and stretching in the sunlight of Julian's room.

"Thanks," she whispered, sliding under the blanket. The grass was dampening with dew. Julian was still watching her, his head resting on his curved arm.

"Jules," Emma whispered. "If our witchlight doesn't work here, and seraph blades don't work here, and runes don't work here-what does that mean?"

He sounded weary. "When I looked into an inn, in one of the towns we passed, I saw an angelic rune someone had scrawled on a wall. It was splattered in blood-scratched and defaced. I don't know what's happened here since the Cold Peace, but I know they hate us."

"Do you think Cristina's pendant will still work?" Emma said.

"I think it's just Shadowhunter magic that's blocked here," Julian said. "Cristina's pendant was a faerie gift. It should be all right."

Emma nodded. "Good night, Jules," she whispered.

He smiled faintly. "It's morning, Emma."

She didn't say anything, only closed her eyes-but not all the way, so she could still see him. She hadn't slept near him since that terrible day Jem had told her about parabatai and their curse, and she didn't realize how much she had missed it. She was exhausted, her tiredness seeping out of her bones and into the ground beneath her as her aching body relaxed; she had forgotten what it was like to let consciousness go slowly, as the person she trusted most in the world lay beside her. Even here in Faerie, where Shadowhunters were hated, she felt safer than she had in her own bedroom alone, because Jules was there, so close that if she'd reached out, she could have touched him.

She couldn't reach out, of course. Couldn't touch him. But they were breathing close together, breathing the same breath as consciousness fragmented, as Emma let go of wakefulness and fell, the image of Julian in the dawn light following her down into dreams.