Chapter 33 · Mom's Still Breathing

The link snaps and I'm back on my knees in the hall, Dad's blade still cutting into my palm.

Blood everywhere. Mine. His. Someone else's trailing down the stone toward the stairs.

"Rona." Dad's voice cracks. The thing behind his eyes is gone but he looks worse now. Human-worse. "What did you see?"

I don't answer. Can't. Because that blood trail is fresh and it's leading down.

Toward the Blood Room.

Mom opened it herself. I saw it in Dad's memory. She walked in and the door shut and ten years later they told me she burned.

Dax is already moving. He's got his enhancement flaring, that ugly green glow under his skin, and he's following the blood like he knows exactly where it goes.

"Wait—" I start, but he's gone.

Dad tries to stand. Falls. His leg bends wrong and I hear the snap of whatever that thing did to him from the inside.

"Don't." I grab his shoulder. My hand's still bleeding. The bond-sense flickers, tries to latch, but I shove it down. Not now. Not him.

"She's still in there." Dad's staring at the stairs. "Your mother. She's still—"

"You said she died."

"I said she burned."