Chapter 10 · Black Moon Hunt

The first bolt hit the black glass door where Mara's mother's hand had vanished.

Silver screamed across the chamber. The bolt sank into the glass up to its fletching, and smoke hissed from the crack around it.

Ronan grabbed Mara by the back of her coat and yanked her down behind the stone plinth.

"Move," he snapped.

A second bolt tore through the space where her head had been.

Mara hit the floor hard enough to bite her tongue. Copper filled her mouth. Her new mark burned under the bandage on her wrist, hot and ugly, like someone had pressed a live coal into her skin.

Inez was already crouched near the broken archway, iron blade up. Her dark hair had come loose from its knot. She looked pale, which was saying something. Inez usually looked calm even when she was ruining somebody's life in court.

"Council hunters," she said.

"No shit," Mara muttered.

Another silver bolt struck the pillar above them. Stone dust scattered through Ronan's hair.

He didn't flinch.

That scared her more than the bolt.

His eyes had gone too dark. Not black. Worse.