Chapter 26 · His Name on the Pact

"Don't touch it."

Daniel's hand closed over mine before my fingers reached the paper. The parchment sat between us on the basement floor, still glowing faint red where my mother's name had burned through the ink.

"Let go," I said.

"Leah—"

"Let go or I'll make you."

His grip loosened. I pulled my hand back, wiped it on my jeans. The skin felt wrong where he'd touched me, too warm, like I'd held it over a candle.

Elsie stood three feet behind us, her back pressed to the furnace. She hadn't moved since the ground stopped shaking. "You need to get out of this house," she said. Her voice came out thin. "Both of you. Right now."

"Not until I see the whole thing." I crouched lower, leaned over the parchment. The edges were burned black, the center cracked down the middle like old leather. Three names, written in something darker than ink. My mother's was still smoking.

Daniel shifted his weight. "You don't want to read it."

"Why?"

"Because once you do, you're in."

"I'm already in." I pointed at my mother's name. "She put me in ten years ago."

Elsie made a small noise in her throat.