Chapter 25 · Use My Blood

The silver cuff bit into my wrist hard enough to make my fingers go numb.

I jerked back anyway.

Bad move.

The chain snapped tight above my head, yanking both arms up until my shoulders screamed. My boots scraped across black stone. There was nowhere to brace. Nothing to grab except the cold metal locked around my wrists.

"Easy," Vera said from somewhere above me. "You’ll bruise before we even start. That would be embarrassing."

The emergency lights came on one by one around the chamber.

Red bulbs. Dirty walls. A circle carved into the floor under my feet.

Blood ran through the grooves.

Not fresh. Not all of it.

Some of it had dried brown in the cuts between the stones. Some of it still shone wet and black under the lights, crawling through the ritual lines like the floor had veins.

And right in the middle of the circle, under my boots, was a wolf skull the size of a motorcycle helmet.

"Vera," I said.

My voice came out rough.

She stood on the balcony above the chamber in a white coat that looked way too clean for this place. Her dark hair was pinned back. No panic.