Chapter 24 · Mom's Still Alive

The memory isn't mine.

I'm running through corridors I've never seen, stone walls slick with something dark, and my hands are smaller. Younger. There's a woman ahead of me, red hair flying, and she's screaming my name except it's not my name, it's—

I slam back into my own body so hard I taste blood.

Cain's on his knees next to me, one hand braced against the dirt. His eyes are still flickering gold and black, like the bond can't decide who's driving. The clearing around us is trashed. Scorch marks in the grass. Three of Silas's hunters flat on their backs, not moving. And Silas himself is gone.

"What the hell was that?" My voice comes out shredded.

Cain doesn't answer. He's staring at his palm. There's a mark there now, same as mine, burning red and already fading into a thin white line. Like a scar that hasn't decided if it wants to stay.

"Cain."

"Your mother." His voice is rough. He looks up at me and his face is wrong. Too pale. Too tight. "That was your mother's memory."

I don't move. Can't. The air in my lungs just stops.

"She was in Duskridge," he says.