Chapter 25 · After the Thirteenth Strike

The thirteenth strike did not sound like a bell.

It sounded like the city breaking its teeth.

The note rolled through the forbidden chamber, deep enough to shiver the iron hinges and make the dust lift from the floor in trembling veils. Every candle flame bent toward the master clock. The brass hands above the sealed doorway jerked past midnight, then stopped.

Eve Calder stopped with them.

Her fingers slipped from Kieran’s sleeve. Her knees folded, but she never hit the floor. He caught her beneath the shoulders, dragging her against his chest as the shattered hourglass spilled its last glittering grains across the black stone.

“Eve.”

Her head lolled against him. A strand of copper hair stuck to the blood at her temple. Her mouth parted, but no breath came out.

Kieran pressed two fingers to the side of her throat.

Nothing.

The chamber went silent.

Not quiet. Silent.

Beyond the forbidden door, Nacre City froze in the instant after midnight. Rain hung in the air outside the cracked windows, each drop suspended like a bead on invisible wire. A moth hovered beside a candle without moving its wings.