he living. Others hu

ter dawn-silent, gray

n streams roll down the cobblestones like veins under skin. Velgrave didn't wake gently; it

dn't

l clung to him

an cloaked in b

ought m

s-echoing in a place

pons case she hadn't touched in years. She packed with precision: two silver-edged daggers, one collapsible bow, a

tched he

him when she spoke.

he

the rot

mist-cloaked city, s

oads, pulled by mechanical horses with steam hissing from their joints. No one walked the st

d as they turned a narrow bend and passed under an

w?" he ech

where the dead d

ilence

like drunks in the rain. Doors were boarded shut from the inside. Wind hissed through broken s

a sanctuary," she

vampi

worse than

n-angelic statues cracked down the mi

ned here?"

edge of a tombstone now embedded

Blood War," she said. "But it wasn't destroye

her. "What

nstead, she knelt beside a grav

na

Keeper of the

he air shift

peak, a voice cut

then. She

eamed silver; the other was a hollow socket, stitched with thin threads.

d, her entire body

. "You re

uldn't b

sity flickering in that one silver eye. "A

m," she snapped. "

ith unsettling intensity. "You shouldn't b

"I don't need forgive

arkened. "Then ask the blood

"What are you

ice dropped

e the

but with speed, closing the gap in a blink. He touched Ash

el demanded, already be

said, voice trembling now. "It's r

d his wrist.

something like pity. "The

at tightened

Cazriel

now th

to me. In

ay. "Then you've

I hav

ything," the boy whisper

rael, his voice

a co

embled beneat

tain, eyes wide. "It's too l

ha

the ear

h a sound like bones shattering

ng. Pale. Bloodied.

hem ruptured. Not o

ack. "What the

irael said, voice cold.

y retreating. "You

sher behind her,

ed free of the grave-tall, gaun

sn't

t vam

acted-a jolt of pressure behind his e

rned toward h

ed. "What i

red, stunned,

h

ers, not in speech, but in a chant-low and guttur

all, Asher h

aloud, but

ebr

tagg

eneath the brand L

hind the kneeling figures-a shape stitched in shadow, limb

low had

ancient was wa

it