Chapter 13 · Mother's Chains

“Don't touch the seal, you little fool, or we both burn.”

Her voice was dry parchment, scratching against the silence of the cell. She didn't move from the corner. She didn't have to. Her eyes were milky voids, staring through me, her wrists snapped like twigs in iron cuffs. Violet runes pulsed on the metal—a dying heart, beating in time with the dread in my gut.

I froze. My hand was inches from the shimmering barrier. The black key in my palm hummed, a hungry, low-frequency vibration that made my teeth ache.

“I’m not here to burn,” I snapped. My voice shook. I hated it. “Carson sent me. He said you have the answer to the binding. That you can break the chain.”

She let out a jagged laugh. “Carson. My sweet, broken boy. He thinks a key is the answer? He thinks Rook blood is a gift?”

I stepped closer. The cellar cold seeped through my boots, biting into my skin. “I don't care about the bloodline. I want my sister back, and I want this curse out of me before it eats me alive.”

She tilted her head, studying me like a specimen. “A debt hunter. A cutter.