Chapter 10 · Dead Names in the Archive

The black door opened three inches, and something on the other side grabbed my wrist.

I slammed my shoulder into it before it could pull me through.

“Nia!” I yelled.

Her crying stopped.

That scared me worse than the hand.

Ronan caught the back of my dress and hauled me away from the gap. The marriage mark on my finger burned so hard my knees almost folded.

“Don’t go in,” he said.

“Your sister is in there.”

“My sister isn’t in there.”

Another sob came through the door. Small. Shaky. Nia’s voice.

“Mara?”

I drove my elbow into Ronan’s ribs. “Move.”

He didn’t.

His eyes had gone silver. Not gray. Not human. Silver, bright and empty, with a black ring spreading around his pupils.

The moon-rage was coming back.

I grabbed his jaw and forced his face toward mine. “You want to lose control in front of your entire court? Fine. Do it after we get my sister.”

His hand tightened on my waist.

“Mara.”

“That’s my name. Use it.”

The black ring stopped growing.

Behind us, boots scraped across the stone floor. Guards. Nobles.