Chapter 13 · Pay Up, Partner

"Don't you dare check out on me, Lyra!" I grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard, blood still dripping from my palm onto the altar.

Her eyes were solid black. No white. No Lyra. Just that void staring back through her.

"Cane?" she choked out, but it wasn't her voice. It was layered, wet, like something speaking from the bottom of the ocean through her throat. "You shouldn't have woken me."

"Yeah? Well, you shouldn't have gone lights-out on me," I snapped. "Come back. Right now. Look at me, not it."

She convulsed. The chains had snapped, yeah, but the runes under us were still burning. That sick blue light was crawling up her ankles, up her wrists. The circle was awake and it was hungry.

"It's in my head," she gasped, and her nails dug into my forearms. Her real voice cracked through. "Cane, it's so loud. It's showing me the Eye. It's opening."

"I got you. I got you," I said, even though my own blood was making me dizzy. I'd sliced my hand open on the runes like an idiot. Old blood for old magic, right? Stupid. "Hey. Hey, breathe with me. In. Out.