Chapter 44 · The Second Contract

"Don't let me finish that page." Kane caught my wrist before I could tear the contract in half.

His fingers burned against my skin. Too hot. Blood leaked from the hollow beneath his shoulder, ran down his ribs, and dripped between our boots.

I stared at the paper in my other hand.

My handwriting crawled across it in black-red ink. The date sat above my name.

A date from before I was born.

"You knew this existed," I said.

Kane's jaw tightened. "I knew there was a second contract. I didn't know it had found you."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting while the chamber's coming apart."

The floor split with a crack like breaking bone.

Black water exploded through the gap and rushed around our boots.

The contract jerked in my grip.

Not from wind. There wasn't any wind down here.

The ink moved.

A new line dragged itself across the page, one letter at a time.

Kane pulled me toward the stone platform. "Give it to me."

"So you can hide it again?"

"So I can stop it from binding you."

"You said that before I took the memory from your shoulder.