Chapter 25 · Her Brother in the Blood

“Don’t move.”

Sable Renn stood at the bottom of the guild courtyard steps with six blood guards behind her and Nessa’s mark painted across the dead.

Not painted. Burned.

Every body on the black stone had the same thin red sigil pressed into the throat. A hooked circle. Three cuts through the center. Nessa’s forbidden mark.

The one she’d stolen.

The one that was currently burning under the skin of her left palm.

“Funny,” Sable said, looking around at the bodies like she was hosting a tour. “I was told the vault had opened. I didn’t expect it to start spilling murderers into my courtyard.”

Dorian stepped in front of Nessa before she could answer.

He was still pale from dying ten minutes ago. His shirt was stuck to his chest where her blood had soaked through it. His breathing came shallow, controlled, like every breath had to be argued into happening.

But his hand was steady when he lifted it.

“Move your guards back,” he said.

Sable smiled. “You look terrible, Rook.”

“I’m having a rough night.”

“You stopped having rough nights the second your family lost its seat.” Her eyes slid past him and landed on Nessa.