Chapter 28 · The Blood Gate Before Dawn

The bloody hand around Nessa's ankle yanked hard enough to tear a scream out of her.

She hit the vault floor on one knee. Stone bit through her trousers. Her stolen sigil burned under her ribs like somebody had shoved a poker into her chest.

"Nessa!" Cael lunged for her.

Too late.

The hand dragged her toward the crack splitting the vault floor. Red light pulsed below it. Not fire. Blood. Too much blood, running through old channels under Veyra City.

Nessa clawed at the stone. Her nails snapped against it.

"Get it off her," Jace shouted.

Dorian was already moving.

He looked half dead. Blood soaked the front of his shirt, dark and glossy, and the black veins of the seven-night curse had crawled from his palm to his throat. But he dropped beside Nessa, grabbed the red wrist, and drove his fingers into the thing's skin.

The hand screamed.

Not like a person.

Like metal screaming when it got bent wrong.

The vault shook. Dorian's blood splashed over Nessa's knuckles. The hand loosened for one second.

That was enough.

Nessa ripped free and kicked backward, heel catching Dorian in the hip. He didn't complain.