The Alphas Broken Mate novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Voice

I did not sleep.

I sat beside my mother's stone until the sky went grey, with Caius's cloak around my shoulders and his hand in mine.

The new mark on my shoulder throbbed in time with his pulse.

"They will not hear you," he said quietly. "Every man on that ridge has wax in his ears."

"I know."

"Then what do you mean to do?"

I looked at the stone.

I looked at the word for Caller carved on the stone, and at the sign beside it: a mouth, open.

"On the wall I Called through the air," I said. "I never tried the ground."

Caius frowned.

"Wax stops the ear," I said. "It does not stop the ground."

The old woman, sitting on the other side of the grave, nodded once.

"The Callers sang to the ground," she said. "That is why they are buried here."

"The valley remembers every voice that ever went into it."

"The old songs say a Caller with a mate can Call through the earth, and no stopped ear will help."

"Will it hurt?" Caius asked.

"Yes," the old woman and I said together.

He laughed, shakily, and kissed my knuckles.

The sun came over the rim.

On the ridge, three hundred men stood in a ring with crossbows on their shoulders.

A lantern was still burning in front of them, though no one needed it now.

Osric stood at the front, on the northern cliff above the river, with Bryony at his feet.

Her gag was gone.

She was sitting up with her bound hands in her lap and her chin high, and she saw me coming and rolled her eyes.

"I told you not to bring the voice," she called. "Nobody listens to the healer."

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