Chapter 34 · The Understudy's Name

The blade landed in Maeve’s palm.

Cold entered first.

Then the pain.

Its edge bit through the thin fabric of her glove and opened a bright line across the heel of her hand. Blood welled, warm and immediate, sliding between her fingers. Somewhere beyond the darkness, a thousand audience members inhaled as one.

Eli made a sound that was almost her name.

“Maeve.”

The word came from the stage floor, from the blackness, from the place where he had been dragged to his knees. She could hear the strain in his voice. Chains—or silver thread, or something older than both—pulled his shoulders back. The black script crawled over one side of his face in branching strokes, swallowing his cheekbone and brow. His eyes remained visible.

Still his eyes.

The blade trembled in Maeve’s grip.

A single white line appeared in the dark above them.

TRUE MAEVE KELLAN MUST KILL THE UNDERSTUDY BEFORE THE CURTAIN FALLS.

The words glowed wetly, as if written in fresh blood.

The theater waited.

Maeve felt the point of the knife tilt toward Eli’s chest. Her wrist jerked forward without her permission. The muscles in her arm locked around the handle.