Chapter 26 · The Wife on Trial

The knife didn't move.

I kept it there, right against Nora's throat, but my hand was shaking so bad I was afraid I'd cut her by accident. The blood mark on her arm sat there like proof, older than me, older than Kane's family falling apart, maybe older than this whole damn mess.

"How long?" My voice came out wrong. Too quiet. "How long have you been feeding it?"

Nora didn't blink. "Twenty-three years."

Kane made a sound behind me, something between a laugh and a growl. "Before the Fall. You were already—"

"I was trying to stop it." Nora's eyes stayed on mine, not his. "Your mother knew, Evelyn. She's the one who taught me how."

The knife slipped. Just an inch, but enough that Nora could've moved if she wanted to. She didn't.

"Don't." Kane's voice was closer now. I could hear him moving, could feel the temperature drop as shadows crawled across the floor. "Don't listen to her. She's been lying since—"

"Your mother was a curse-mender," Nora said, faster now, words tumbling out like she'd been holding them in for years. "One of the best. She knew the blood gate was growing before anyone else did.