Chapter 14 · Something Breathing Below

The air smells like old blood and stone that's been locked away too long.

I hit the ground hard. Ronan's arm is still around me, and he rolls us so he takes most of the impact. We slide across something smooth and cold. Not rock. Glass. Black glass, just like the walls upstairs, but down here it's cracked and uneven, like something tried to break out from underneath.

I can't see anything. The light from the vault is gone. Just a thin line way above us where the floor split open.

"Mara." Ronan's voice is rough. He's still holding onto me. "You hurt?"

"No." I push myself up. My hands press into the glass, and it's warm. That's wrong. Glass this far down should be freezing. "Where are we?"

"Under the vault." He lets go of me and stands. I hear him moving, boots scraping across the floor. "The old prison. The one they sealed after the first moon-blood families tried to—"

He stops.

"Tried to what?"

"Doesn't matter." His voice is tight. Controlled. The way it gets when he's lying or holding something back. "We need to find a way out before Silas comes down here.