Chapter 27 · Blade at My Throat

Nolan slammed one hand against the tunnel wall, and black fire burst through his fingers.

It didn’t burn the stone.

It ate it.

A strip of old Kade marble went gray, then crumbled under his palm like dried bread. Nolan jerked his hand back, teeth clenched so hard his jaw shook.

“Don’t touch anything,” I said.

He gave me a look that would’ve been insulting if he wasn’t half bent over and bleeding onto the floor. “Great advice. Little late.”

The black flames crawled under the skin of his wrist. Thin veins of midnight. They moved toward the marriage mark on his chest, then flared bright enough to light the tunnel.

Mara swore behind us. “That’s not supposed to happen yet.”

“Really?” I snapped. “Because I was hoping the screaming fire disease was part of the plan.”

“It wasn’t.”

Of course it wasn’t.

Ahead of us, the tunnel dropped deeper under the Kade estate. The walls had changed ten minutes ago. No more old brick. No more pipes and forgotten wine-cellar doors.

These were contract walls.

Names ran across the stone in lines of silver. Thousands of them. Maybe millions.