Chapter 24 · Who the Beasts Obey

The clinic's back entrance was wide open when we got there.

Kane stumbled against the doorframe, one hand pressed to his ribs where the curse marks were crawling up toward his throat. His breathing came in short, painful bursts. Without the beasts, he was burning out from the inside.

"Stay behind me," I said, even though we both knew that was bullshit. He could barely stand.

"Evelyn." His voice was rough. "If Marcus is already inside—"

"Then we're screwed either way." I pushed the door open wider. The hallway was dark. No emergency lights. No sound of machines from Leo's room upstairs. "But I'm not leaving Leo here."

Kane didn't argue. He just followed me in, his footsteps uneven on the tile.

The air tasted wrong. Metallic. Like blood and ozone mixed together. I'd felt this before, the night the beasts first came through in the railyard. The night Kane's curse broke open and turned half the docks into a killing floor.

We moved down the hallway toward the stairs. My mother's pendant was ice-cold against my chest, the green light pulsing faint under my shirt. It had been doing that since I tore up the contract.