Chapter 24 · Her Blood on the Dead

Dorian hit the stone hard enough that Nessa heard his teeth click.

For one stupid second, she just stared at him.

Then she dropped beside him so fast her knees slammed the floor. “Dorian. Hey. No. No, you don’t get to do this right now.”

His eyes were half open, but there was nobody behind them. The blood oath on his chest had gone black-red, crawling under his skin in branching lines. It kept moving. Slow. Hungry.

Nessa pressed two fingers to his throat.

Nothing.

“His heart stopped,” Elias said.

Nessa looked up so sharply her neck cracked. “I know what stopped means.”

Elias was leaning against the archive wall, one hand clamped over the cut in his side. His face had gone gray under the vault’s sick red light. Cael stood between him and the center platform, sword out, like steel could somehow bully an ancient blood engine into behaving.

The wall behind them kept changing.

Nessa Quill. Dorian Rook. Nessa Quill. Dorian Rook.

Her name. His name. Again and again.

Each time the letters formed, red liquid slid down the stone.

Cael swore under his breath. “Get away from him.”

Nessa laughed once. It came out rough.