Chapter 12 · Crowned in Moonlight

The hand inside the red tunnel clamped around my wrist and yanked.

I hit the stone floor hard enough to bite my tongue. Nia screamed behind me. Ronan tried to move, but his knees gave out with a wet sound and he slammed against the wall.

Drake smiled over the edge of his execution order. "Take them."

Three guards rushed through the archive door, silver chains rattling between their fists.

I twisted toward the tunnel. The hand holding me was pale, too long, and covered in black lines that crawled under the skin like ink in water. I drove my injured palm into its wrist.

The thing hissed.

It let go.

I rolled back toward Nia and grabbed her around the waist. A chain snapped through the spot where my neck had been a second earlier.

"Move!" I shouted.

Nia stumbled after me, one hand pressed to her bruised wrist. Ronan was still on the floor, blood soaking through his shirt and pooling beneath him.

Drake stepped over the threshold.