Chapter 29 · Bride on the Block

The chain hit my mother around the waist before I could get one full breath in.

It came out of the crack in the dock like a black metal snake. Wet. Smoking. Links bigger than my fist slammed around Elara’s ribs and dragged her sideways across the boards.

“Mom!”

I lunged.

My knees folded under me almost right away. The place where my moon mark had been felt flayed open, even though there wasn’t much blood. Just raw skin. White-hot pain. Like somebody had peeled a live wire off my wrist.

Elara caught herself on one hand. Her other hand still held the moon-cut blade.

The stolen mark glowed in her palm.

“No,” she snapped at the chain. “No. You don’t get her.”

The thing under the dock laughed.

Not loud. Worse than loud.

The sound came up through the wood, through my boots, through my teeth. The water in the harbor churned around the pilings. Something huge moved beneath it. I saw one pale knuckle break the surface, then slide back down.

“Mother first,” it said again.

Dorian shoved himself upright against a cargo container.

Blood ran down his shirt from the wound Elara had given him.