Chapter 37 · The Final Blank

“Don’t touch him!” Eve slammed both hands into my chest, but the Council’s white chain had already wrapped around my throat.

It yanked me off the floor.

My boots scraped across the marble as the chain dragged me toward the black door behind Silas Quinn. Every pull shaved something out of me. First the pain in my ribs vanished. Then the memory of the alley where Mara had laughed at a stupid joke. Then the sound of my own name in my mother’s voice.

“Cole!” Eve caught my wrist. “Look at me!”

“I’m looking.” My voice came out thin. “You’re standing on my foot.”

“Good. Stay annoying.”

Silas stood in front of the door, one hand pressed against the wound the betrayal contract had burned into his chest. The ink under his skin crawled like trapped insects. He looked wrecked.

He still smiled.

“You broke my contract,” he said. “You thought that made you free?”

Eve pulled harder. The chain cut into my neck. “You don’t own either of us anymore.”

“I don’t need ownership.” Silas lifted two fingers.

The room changed.

White walls slammed into place around us. The floor dropped away, then snapped back beneath my boots.