Chapter 25 · Mom's Ransom

The wall exploded before I could decide whether to hit Dorian again or scream at him until my throat gave out.

Stone punched across the chamber. I threw an arm over my face and hit the floor hard enough to bite my tongue. Dust filled my mouth. Hot blood ran down my chin.

Then something huge landed on the other side of the broken seal.

Not a dog. Not even close.

The First Hound stood in the cloud of gray dust with its head low and its shoulders scraping the ceiling. Its fur looked burned down to the skin in places. Black fluid leaked from between ribs that were too wide, too sharp. It had four eyes. All of them locked on me.

"Mara!" Sable yelled.

I rolled just as the thing's front paw smashed into the floor where my head had been.

The impact cracked the stone open.

Dorian grabbed the back of my jacket and dragged me behind a fallen slab. He was bleeding through the shirt at his side. Silver had burned a dark hole around the wound. His face had gone pale under the dust.

"Don't move," he said.

I shoved his hand away.