Chapter 19 · The First Bride

The core recognized her.

Evelyn stared at the stone archway still glowing with her name. Not Morrow. Kade. The script burned into the granite like it had been waiting eight years to write itself.

Nolan leaned hard against the wall beside her. His shirt stuck to his ribs where the black fire had chewed through skin. Every breath came out wet.

"Don't stop now," he said.

She wanted to. Her hand still hurt from where the pact brand flared up when the archway scanned her. The mark on her palm looked deeper now, like it had burrowed another layer into bone.

"Your uncle's going to know we're here the second we go through," she said.

Nolan pushed off the wall. He swayed. Caught himself. "He already knows. The core sends alerts to the family head when anyone crosses the threshold."

"Then why—"

"Because he doesn't know you can cross it." Nolan wiped blood off his mouth with the back of his hand. "He thinks the pact gives you access to me. Not to the house. So right now he's scrambling to figure out how you triggered the wards without setting off the kill sequence."

Evelyn looked back at the archway.