Chapter 35 · Forbidden Resonance

"Pick one," Silas said. "The boy lives, or you hear what your sister left behind."

Kael’s hand hovered over Julian’s open chest.

The bone shard in Silas’s palm gave a tiny click.

Then it spoke.

“Kael.”

His fingers jerked. The scalpel nearly slipped.

Julian caught his wrist before the blade could touch him. His grip was cold enough to hurt, but his eyes were burning.

“Don’t listen to him,” Julian said.

“That was her voice.”

“No. It was a trick.”

Silas smiled. “You heard her too, didn’t you?”

The chamber shook. Something slammed into the treatment-room doors hard enough to crack the wood. Church soldiers shouted outside. One of them screamed.

Julian shoved Kael behind him.

The movement pulled at the bone-plague spreading across his chest. Ivory lines climbed from the wound, splitting the skin in thin, bright branches. Julian’s jaw locked. A rough sound scraped out of him.

“Move,” Kael snapped. “You’re tearing the seal.”

“I’m keeping you away from him.”

“You’re making me work around your ribs.”

“Then work faster.”

Silas raised the shard. “The next impact opens the door. After that, I can’t promise my men will tell you apart from the thing outside.