Chapter 10 · Hungry for Dread

"Don't you dare eat that again." Lira's hand locked around my wrist and yanked me back so hard my teeth clicked.

The black dread was still smoking off my skin. Still whispering. Still hungry.

"Let go," I said.

"No. Look at you. You're shaking." Her fingers were cold. Mine were burning. "You ate the last one and you almost stopped breathing, Jace."

"And it leveled me up. We need the levels." I tried to pull free. She didn't budge. "That thing out there? The hound? It's still circling. You want to fight it at level four?"

"I want you alive at level four," she snapped. "There's a difference."

Bram kicked the Anchor housing with his boot. The light flickered. Weak, yellow, dying. "Kids. Save the couples therapy. That howl wasn't a stray. That was a scout. If the King's hounds found us, the pack's right behind it."

The Deep pressed in outside our half-built wall. You could feel it. Like the ocean at night with teeth.

And the dread I'd ripped out of the air? It was floating right in front of me. A ball of pure, concentrated fear. Blacker than black. It pulsed.