Chapter 13 · Graveyard of Dead Gods

"Don't touch the stones." Rowan's hand locked around Tessa's wrist before her boot could leave the cracked black slab.

The chain between them snapped tight. Heat flashed under the seal at her throat, and her heart kicked hard enough to hurt.

"You could've started with that," she hissed.

"You were about to step on a god's grave."

"It looks like a rock."

"That's how they get you."

He yanked her back against him. Her shoulder hit his chest, solid and warm through his coat. The metal links dragged over her ribs. For one sharp second, his breath touched the side of her neck.

Then the slab beneath her boot cracked.

A thin blue eye opened in the stone.

Tessa froze. "Rowan."

"I see it. Don't move."

"That thing has an eye."

"Still don't move."

The eye rolled toward her. A low sound crawled up from under the ground, too deep to be a growl and too wet to be anything human.

Tessa looked down at the boot pinned against the slab. "You said the dead gods were dead."

"They are."

"That one disagrees."

Rowan's fingers tightened around her wrist. Not enough to bruise.