Chapter 12 · The Ghost Night

"Move, Mara. Now." Calder caught her by the back of her coat and yanked her out of the doorway just as a black iron hook punched through the wood where her throat had been.

She hit his chest hard enough to knock the air out of both of them. His arm locked around her waist. His other hand came up with the short blade already drawn.

"Let go."

"When the hook stops trying to kill you."

"It is not the hook. It is the idiot holding it."

The man outside ripped the hook free. His face was covered by a strip of gray cloth, but Mara saw the white mark carved across his forehead.

A map-burner.

The killer swung again.

Calder shoved Mara behind him. Steel snapped against steel. The impact jarred through the narrow room, rattling the empty shelves and the loose stones under their boots.

"You know him?" Calder asked.

"I know what he does."

"That wasn't my question."

"Then ask a better one."

The map-burner kicked the door inward. Calder turned his shoulder into it, stopping the blow with his body. His coat split at the seam.