Chapter 14 · The Council's Hounds

The door behind us exploded inward before I could make a choice.

Not the one with Mom's voice. The blood door. The one the council was supposed to be politely knocking on.

Six figures poured through the wreckage. Silver masks. Black coats that moved wrong, like the fabric was alive. Council hounds. The kind they sent when they wanted you alive enough to question and dead enough to not complain about it.

Kane shoved me behind him. The shadows were still crawling up his neck, but his voice came out steady. "Get Finn through the other door."

"I'm not leaving you."

"Evelyn." He didn't look back. "That's an order."

"We're not married yet. You don't get to order me."

One of the hounds laughed. A woman's voice, muffled behind silver. "Oh, this is sweet. Rook finally found someone stupid enough to play house."

Kane's hand twitched. The shadows under his skin pulsed, and three of the hounds stumbled back like they'd been shoved. But I saw what it cost him. The black veins spread faster, crawling toward his jaw.

Nora moved between us and the hounds, hands up. "Council business can wait. We've got a medical emergency here.