Chapter 21 · The Bloodline Key

"Get your hands off him, Cade!"

I lunged, my voice cracking.

Cade didn't budge. He had Silas pinned against the damp stone wall, one forearm crushed across the man's throat. The cellar air tasted of ozone and old blood. In Silas's chest, the mirrored lock was humming—a low, vibrating frequency that made the lock in my own sternum ache with a sickening heat.

"Stay back, Lorne," Cade snapped. He didn't look at me. His eyes were lethal, locked on Silas. "He’s not your father. He’s a parasite with a matching set of hardware."

Silas let out a wet, rattling laugh. "Hardware? Is that what you call it, Rook? I call it a birthright." He gasped for air, a jagged grin splitting his face. "Ask him, Lorne. Ask him what happened the night I found you in the ruins of the West Gate."

I stopped dead. My heart hammered against the black void in my chest. "What are you talking about?"

Cade’s grip tightened. I heard the faint, sickening creak of cartilage. "He’s lying. He’s playing the same game he’s played for twenty years. He doesn't protect you—he harvests you."

"Harvests me?" I stepped closer.