Cover

A RELICS NOVEL

Also Available from Tim Lebbon and Titan Books

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TIM LEBBON AND TITAN BOOKS:

Coldbrook

The Silence

THE RELICS TRILOGY

Relics

The Folded Land

The Edge

Alien: Out of the Shadows

THE RAGE WAR

Predator: Incursion

Alien: Invasion

Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon

The Cabin in the Woods

Kong: Skull Island

Firefly: Generations

Title Page

A RELICS NOVEL

TIM LEBBON

TITAN BOOKS

Dedication

This one is dedicated to my good friends
Olaf and Yuka Buchheim

Part One: Bone

PART ONE

BONE

1

1

“Do you trust me?”

The kid doesn’t know. He respects the creature before him. He fears it, is fascinated by it, loves it, and sometimes even finds it intimidating, especially on those evenings when it descends from the caves outside town, moving through shadows like a shadow itself to come and visit his mother. The creature’s name is Mohserran, and it is his father. He knows that it troubles his mom as well, but he also realises that there’s something else between the two of them, something grown-up and mysterious. Even though he’s only eleven years old, he understands love.

But trust? He’s not so sure about that.

Especially now, with all the blood.

“It doesn’t matter,” the creature says. The boy has never seen it like this, or heard it sounding so flustered and panicked. It’s only rarely that he has seen Mohserran without his mother also being there, and some of those memories are magical. Now, though, the fact that he doesn’t know where she is frightens him. He might be growing up, but a kid his age still wants his mother, especially when something strange is happening. Something bad.

The kid has felt sick for a couple of days. He’s vomited everything up, and still dry heaves. He’s slept and woken, and confused the two. He’s sweating even though the night is cool. And he has thoughts that are unfamiliar and frightening, about blood and broken bones, torn flesh and teeth clogged with meat. He has wandered back and forth through the town, hardly knowing where he is, or sometimes even who he is.

“Where’s Mom?”

There are strange noises coming from the surrounding darkness. From one direction something is banging again and again, like a door being slammed over and over. From elsewhere he can hear pained shouts, like someone trying to cry past a blocked throat. From further away, a scream.

Overhead, a gentle whoop-whoop noise drifts back and forth over the town, the echoes heavy in his chest. A shadow blots out the stars, moonlight glimmering from dark metal. The boy has seen helicopters before, but never without an accompanying roar. He’s finding it difficult to ally the sights and sounds. Confusion twists all of his senses. He wonders if he is still asleep. He blinks and sees teeth again, and his jaw aches with a dreadful need.