Chapter 15 · Blood on the Stone

The knife went in shallow.

Not enough to kill me. Just enough to make the ring wake up.

I jerked against the leather straps biting into my wrists, but the black stone under my back held cold through my shirt. My blood ran warm down the inside of my arm and pooled in one of the carved grooves beside me.

The groove drank it.

That was the worst part.

Not the blade. Not Vera Sane standing over me in a white dress that probably cost more than my apartment lease. Not the iron smell creeping up my throat.

The stone drank.

A thin red line crawled through the carving, following the shape of a wolf skull cut into the altar.

Vera watched it with that polished little smile of hers.

"There you are," she said.

"You cut me for a science project?" My voice came out rough. "You people need hobbies. Like golf. Tax fraud. Murdering people in normal basements."

Her smile twitched.

Good. Still got it.

The room was round, maybe once a wine cellar. No windows. No exits I could see except the huge iron door across from me.