Chapter 26 · You remember everything else

"You remember everything else."

"Mara, stop."

"Where was it?"

The thing pulled me closer. Its face was inches from mine now. The cold of it crawled over my lips.

"You put it in the stove," it said.

"Wrong."

Its grip tightened.

"You buried it under the tree."

"Wrong."

"You gave it to the enforcer."

Dax's head snapped toward us.

The corpse smiled again.

"There. That hurt him."

"Liora hated the enforcers," I said.

"She hated what they did."

"She hated you."

The mouth on the altar opened.

A wave of sound slammed into me.

I screamed and dropped to one knee. The mark on my palm split open without bleeding. Black light spilled through the cracks and raced up my wrist.

Dax shouted my name.

The fire around him surged to his waist.

"Mara! Look at me!"

I tried. The corpse twisted my face toward the altar instead.

Inside the stone mouth, hundreds of pale shapes moved behind the teeth. Faces. Names. People trapped inside unfinished promises.

One face belonged to Liora.

Another looked like mine.

The altar spoke in all their voices at once.

"Give us the vow-breaker.