in the dark. Others

ng-bent where they shouldn't bend, stretched where bones should break. A sickle-shaped claw

ont of Asher, her vo

't m

did

eeth. Lirael moved fast-inhuman speed-crossing the distance between them

e. Silver

didn'

ght he

h nearly ma

gold now. Her fangs bared. "Yo

e, its breath foul with rot

ou

sitate. The head fell first, then the body crum

vet curtain. No blood. Just black ooze

n, staring. "That

said. "It

cathedral furnace. It took

along a crack in the floor. Lirael paced near

," she finally sa

rows furrowed. "I

either. Your blood-it's

was what dist

y mother was human.

are you

t. A key. I don't know. All

wh

her dead i

rophecy. Something about a broken bloodline. S

r, then turned away. The record beg

about the

ut on the altar. "I found it sealed in a crypt. In Velg

ped th

cr

rtwined over a ro

lder than anything I've seen.

her eyes. "Sho

nded hi

rely visible under the bruises. A burn in t

two fingers. The moment she

n. Not

gnit

aught, just

her, eyes dark

s that?"

le

," she whispered. "

ieted, Lirael gave him a blanket and a spare s

ty through the cracked stained glass. Velgrave loo

thing ha

d marked Asher. And the plague she thought buried i

't fed i

n she woul

tighter around himself, she caught a whiff of

angs

y before the h

her stirred in the dark. A dr

oom made of sto

and on it sat Lirael, dressed in black a

raight at him

ought m

oke wit

word whispere

neb