Chapter 24 · Bloodbound Deal

Felix's hand was cold. Too cold.

Evira pressed her palm against the black mark spreading across his back. It pulsed under her fingers like something alive, something hungry. Vivian stood three feet away, smiling that teacher smile that made Evira want to put a blade through her teeth.

"Choose," Vivian said. "Your brother or your instructor. One blood offering closes the rift. The altar doesn't care which."

Marcus was on his knees behind her, bleeding from the stab wound he'd taken meant for her ribs. He wasn't saying anything. Just watching her with that look he got when he already knew what she'd pick and hated it.

She looked at Felix. Sixteen years old. Kidnapped because she existed. Because her blood did things it wasn't supposed to.

Then she looked at Marcus. The man who'd kept her secret. Who'd worked the case that might explain why her blood ripped holes in the world.

She thought about her brother growing up without her. About Marcus's partner who'd vanished thirty years ago, about cold cases and unopened letters and all the things people didn't get to finish.

"No," she said.

Vivian's smile flickered. "Excuse me?"

"I said no." Evira pulled her knife.