ASHES OF THE FORGOTTEN

y sleeps. But it

elgrave exhaled mist into the night-a city perpetually on the edge of rot and resurrection. Neon sign

the street three stories below. She didn't breathe. She hadn't in years

and rust curled up to mee

blood i

o

filled with relics of a different kind: stacks of vinyl records, oil paintings in warped gold frames, books bound in leather and dust. Candles

orchestral. Dead languages and violin strings. Lirael's fingers hovered

. Not blood-not anymore. A synthetic substitute. Cold. Tasteless. L

she f

sh

ment. Just... a wrongne

n nave. Her pupils narrowed to slits. The cand

ed the

inst marble-too soft for

or, the hem of her black slip trailing li

supposed t

om behind a crumbli

that

cut with sharp angles. He looked young, maybe twenty-two. But something about th

d called

t. She could hear it rushing through his veins, fast, ir

e you?"

ers. Grey, storm-dark, rimmed

. "I'm here because s

intly. "That'

thing out-a folded piece of parchment, damp from t

in blood," he

she

pinning him to the nearest stone pillar. His breath hitched

sent you,"

know. I found it in a tomb.

eleased her grip. He collapsed forward, coughing on

d ink-older than fresh blood, ir

e Accord is broken.

ers curled ar

ed through anyone's lips in centu

said behind her. "They thi

p wh

itated

ollow

fr

hed. Even the reco

she said again, voice col

," he sa

why

neck, mixing with a bruise that was too purple, too

dy marked," he sai

thing stopped her. A scent on the

hing

ragged him behind the stone altar just as glass shattered overhead. Something

gh the chamber. Not

ng in-b

he figure above crouched low, elongated limbs glistening in the candlelight. I

ts teeth wer

red, "You led

nd her, whi

k they were a