Chapter 15 · Blood Never Lies

The vault door blew inward hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

I hit the floor behind a steel archive cabinet while white fire crawled across the broken frame.

Evan grabbed the back of my jacket. "Move, Nia. Move now."

"You move," I snapped, twisting free. "You knew about her. You knew about Mom."

His face went gray under the blood streaked across his cheek.

Not scared-gray.

Guilty-gray.

Julian stood between us and the door, one hand braced against the wall. The black curse under his skin had climbed past his jaw now. Thin dark lines ran under his left eye and across his temple like someone had drawn cracked glass into his face.

He looked at me once.

"Lower passage," Evan said again. His voice cracked. "It connects to the old flood tunnels. We can get out before they lock down the west wing."

"Who signed the burn order?" I asked.

The Court fire hissed louder outside.

Evan's mouth tightened.

"Nia."

"Don't say my name like that." I pushed up from the floor. My knees were shaking, but screw that. I had just watched a film of Julian standing outside my house with a torch.