“Emrys.”
I pulled.
And the world tilted. It warped and moved at my will while I stood still.
The rigid air carried the stench of bleach and urine. To my new, heightened senses, it was unbearable. A chill ran down my spine as I realized where the Dusk Roads had taken me.
Emrys lay motionless on a bed without a mattress, chained by his wrists and ankles. Sweat soaked his temples. His breath was shallow.
My stomach dropped.
“Well,” someone from the chair by the barred window said. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, Miss Draymoore.”
The Renegade crossed one leg over the other, calm as a priest before a sacrifice.
“Release him,” I said, my voice steady. If he didn’t do it, I’d make him, I realized.
He looked at Emrys with an amused smile. “Oh, I’ll break him. It’s only a matter of time. I’ll get my hands on everything he knows. But with you here, it’ll go much faster. I knew you were the best choice for this task. Love is such a splendid tool.”
Love. The word sunk into my chest, bitter-sweet and heavy. Did he believe Emrys loved me?
A scent hit me—whiskey, smoke, cigar ash.
“Too slow,” I muttered just as Dr. Vexley lunged from behind.
He aimed for my neck, a syringe gleaming in his hand.
I vanished. I had no idea how I did it, and I decided to dwell on it later.
Air whooshed behind me as I landed soundlessly at his back. I grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and shoved the needle into his own throat. A blood drop rolled down the reddish hairs of his perfectly trimmed beard.
His eyes bulged. His lips opened. Foam frothed at his mouth. He hit the floor with a thud.
I stepped over his body and looked at the monster sitting at the window.
“I’ll say this once more,” I told the Renegade. “Release him.”
He rose from the chair - a viper preparing to strike. Heavens, how tall he was. His white wings unfurled, brushing the ceiling.
He was no longer smiling. Instead, he stood still. Studying me. Entering places in my mind he had no right to.
“You have your grandfather’s eyes,” he said.
The words dropped like stones into the silence. I flinched as if he’d struck me. Then it all clicked into place.
I suddenly knew.
That macabre snake of vertebrae biting its tail—the symbol of the Eclipse - I’d seen it before. On my grandfather’s portrait hanging over the fireplace in my father’s study. Thesame place Arthur locked himself in every night and drank until passing out. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I saw the portrait again—my grandfather in his naval coat, with that strange serpent curled around a skull etched into the frame. It was such a minor detail that was easy to overlook. I thought it was decorative.
I was wrong.
“He was a Hollowborn,” the Renegade continued, stepping toward me. “A gifted one. The void ran deep in him, too.”
My mouth went dry. My fingers curled around the weight of the magic pulsing through my veins.
What did that make me?
The truth chilled me to my bones.
