Chapter 7 · Put a Ring on It

The floor cracked open under my boots.

Not a little crack, either. The blackened boards split right down the middle of the safe house like somebody had shoved an axe up through them from the basement.

Ronan caught my elbow before I stepped into it.

“Don’t.”

I yanked free. “There’s something under there.”

“Yes. That’s why I said don’t.”

The brass key hanging from the chain around my neck spun so hard it slapped against my collarbone. Hot. Almost too hot to touch.

Below us, something knocked three times.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Then the ring on my finger tightened.

I sucked in a breath. It wasn’t metal anymore. It felt like a set of teeth closing around the bone under my skin.

Ronan noticed. Of course he did. His face went flat in that annoying way he had when he was trying not to show panic.

“Quinn.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.”

I looked down.

A thin red line ran beneath the ring. Blood slid over the gold band, and the ring drank it. Just swallowed it. The blood vanished into the dark little stone set in the center.

“Cool,” I muttered. “Love that for me.