Chapter 2

Mara grabbed the knife and followed his gaze.

Three bodies lay near the loading doors. They had been there when she entered, wrapped in gray cloaks and facedown beneath the old grain chute.

Now one of them was moving.

Its fingers scraped against the floor.

A crust of ash broke from its sleeve.

"You said this was a private meeting," Mara said.

"It was."

"Your guests are getting up."

"They aren't guests."

The first corpse pushed itself onto one elbow.

Its head snapped toward them.

The skin across its face had split into gray plates. A dull orange glow showed through the cracks.

Mara took one step back. "What the hell is that?"

"The reason I came here."

"You could have mentioned the dead."

"You were stabbing me."

"You seemed fine."

"I was busy."

The corpse opened its mouth.

Ash poured out instead of words.

The other two bodies jerked upright.

Mara lifted her iron spike. Riven drew a black sword from beneath his coat. The blade looked wet, though no liquid ran from it.

"Stay behind me," he said.

"I'd rather chew glass."

"Then stay to my left."

"That's an order?"

"That's the side I can protect."

The first ash-walker rushed them.

Riven met it halfway. His sword cut through its shoulder, and black fire raced along the wound. The creature kept moving.

Mara ducked beneath its swinging arm and drove the iron spike through its knee.

The spike flashed white.

The ash-walker collapsed, screaming through a mouth full of embers.

"Iron works," Mara said.

"Only cold iron."

"You could have mentioned that too."

"You didn't ask."

The second creature slammed into Riven from behind.

He hit the floor hard. His sword skidded away.

Mara had a clean shot at the creature's neck.

She could run instead.

The loading door was ten feet away. The bounty contract was already on her belt. Riven's death would make the court hunters chase her, but she could disappear before dawn. Maybe. If the life-bind did not tear her apart first.

The ash-walker raised both hands over Riven's chest.

Mara swore and drove the spike into its back.

White light burst through the creature's ribs.

It folded around Riven and collapsed into a heap of hot ash.

Riven shoved the remains aside and rose in one smooth motion.

"You came back," he said.

"Don't make it sweet. I need you breathing."

"You could have run."

"I still might."

"No, you won't."

Mara shoved him. "Keep guessing."

The third ash-walker struck.

Riven caught its wrist. The creature's fingers clawed through his coat and opened four dark lines across his chest.

Mara saw blood.

The mark on her wrist burned.

Riven's pain slammed into her body like a fist beneath her ribs.

She folded with a gasp.

"Mara!"

The ash-walker threw him across the room.

He crashed into a stack of crates. Wood split. His shoulder struck the floor.

Mara dropped to one knee, pressing her palm against her chest.

The black mark crawled farther up her arm.

"What did you do to me?" she shouted.

Riven pushed himself up. "I told you. If I bleed, you bleed."

"That wasn't in the contract."

"You never read the contract."

"I read enough."

"You read the part about the money."

The ash-walker turned toward Mara.

Its cracked face tilted. The orange glow inside its skull brightened.

Riven wiped blood from his mouth. "It can smell the bind."

"Then unbind me."

"Give me ten minutes."

"You have ten seconds."

"I need the source."

"Find it after I kill you."

The creature lunged.

Mara threw herself aside. Its claws struck the floor where her head had been. Stone burst apart.

Riven came in from the left and drove his shoulder into the creature's side. They crashed through a table.

The black marks on his throat flared again.

Mara felt his heartbeat stumble.

She stared at her arm. The mark pulsed in time with him.

"Riven!"

He looked over his shoulder. "What?"

"Your heart just skipped."

"I noticed."

"If you die, I die."

"Now you're catching up."

The ash-walker lifted him by the front of his coat.

Mara spotted her knife beneath the broken table. She dove for it, rolled under the creature's arm, and came up behind its knees.

The iron blade punched into the back of its leg.

White fire snapped across the ash-covered body.

The creature shrieked and released Riven.

Riven hit the floor on one knee. He grabbed the creature's throat and drove his sword through its chest.

Black fire exploded from the wound.

The ash-walker collapsed.

For three breaths, the only sound was Riven's rough breathing and Mara's knife scraping against the floor as she tried to stand.

Then the corpse beneath the grain chute moved again.

Mara pointed at it. "You said three."

"There were three."

"That one is getting up."

"No. It isn't."

The body rose anyway.

Its gray cloak slid from its shoulders. Underneath, black veins covered its skin. A metal badge hung from its throat, stamped with the Night Court crescent.

Riven went still.

Mara saw it. "You know him."

"No."

"You went pale."

"I did not."

"Your face is doing something very interesting for a dead man."

The corpse turned its head toward Riven.

A cracked voice pushed through its ash-filled mouth.

"Hale."

Riven's sword rose.

"Who sent you?" he asked.

The corpse laughed. Gray dust spilled from its teeth.

"You still ask questions for them?"

"Answer me."

"You brought the key."

Mara's gaze dropped to the mark on her wrist.

"What key?" she asked.

Riven moved between her and the corpse. "Don't listen."

"That wasn't an answer."

"It wasn't talking to you."

"It called me a key. Why?"

The corpse's glowing eyes fixed on Mara.

"Black blood," it whispered. "The last Voss."

Riven's hand closed around Mara's arm.

The contact shot heat from his palm to her shoulder. She tried to yank away, but his fingers locked over the mark.

"What did it mean?" she demanded.

"Nothing."

"You keep saying that right before everything gets worse."

"Mara, listen to me."

"You know my name. You know my brother. Now this thing knows my blood. Start talking."

The corpse dragged itself forward.

"She opened the furnace," it said. "She called the gray—"

Riven crossed the distance and cut its head from its shoulders.

The blade struck the floor with a hard clang.

The body crumbled around the severed head.

Mara stared at the ash pile.

Then she looked at Riven.

"You just murdered the only witness."

"It was already dead."

"You know what I mean."

"It was infected."

"It knew my mother."

Riven's expression froze.

Mara stepped closer. "Say it. Say you didn't hear that."

"I heard it."

"And?"

"And we leave."

"We?"

"The city gates are sealed. The wardens will be here soon."

"You brought me into a locked city, chained me to your life, and now you're giving orders?"

"Yes."

"Try that again."

Riven wiped his sword clean on the dead man's cloak. "You have an hour before the next shift finds this place. After that, every curse-hunter in Veycross will know you carry my mark."

"Let them come."

"They won't come for me."