Chapter 30 · Burn the Black Moon

The gate's eating him.

Carson's chest is closing, but it's wrong. The flesh twists back together like clay in wet hands, and the black light from the gate pours into the wound. His eyes are open but they're not his. They're empty. Just moon-gate dark.

I can feel it through the pact. The cold crawling up his ribs. The hunger underneath his skin, trying to pull him through.

"Carson." My voice cracks. I'm still on my knees. Blood all over my hands. His blood. Mine. I don't know anymore.

Sera's laughing. She's standing in front of the gate like she owns it, and maybe she does now. The hunters are holding my father down. He's screaming something at me but I can't hear him over the sound the gate makes. It's not a hum anymore. It's a roar.

"Did you think saying his name would save him?" Sera's voice cuts through. She looks at me like I'm a kid who just broke her favorite toy. "You only opened him up, Mia. The gate doesn't heal. It takes."

Carson's hand moves. Just his fingers. They curl toward me.

I grab them. They're freezing.

"Don't." His voice is barely there.