Chapter 10 · The Ash Ledger - Chapter 10: Orders Written in Ash

The mark on Mara's chest burned black through her coat.

Rowan couldn't look away. His broken hand throbbed where he'd grabbed the blade, but that didn't matter. The countdown had stopped trying to make him kill her. Now it wanted something else.

"Get up," Mara said. She was already moving, pulling him to his feet. "We don't have time."

The cathedral hall stretched around them, all shattered stone and smoke. The blade he'd grabbed was gone. So was the countdown. But the mark on his wrist pulsed hot, and now Mara had one too—right over her heart, black lines spreading like frost.

"What did you do?" Her voice was sharp. Not angry. Scared.

"I don't know." His hand screamed when he flexed it. Two fingers wouldn't move right. "You weren't supposed to—"

"Doesn't matter." She let go of his arm and turned, scanning the ruined hall. "The orders. They're here. Have to be."

Rowan's mark flared. Not pain. Direction. Like a compass needle snapping north.

Down.

"Mara." He caught her shoulder with his good hand. "It's pushing us. The Ledger. It wants us to go down."

She looked at him. Really looked.