“Older than Gravebind. Older than law. Where the first oaths were broken before anyone knew how to bind them.”
A tremor passes through the stone beneath my boots.
My throat tightens. “What’s down there?”
“Nothing that sleeps.” Her eyes flick back to mine. “Only what remembers.”
The air shifts, thickening.
Even my night-sight recoils from it — the magic in my blood pulling back like a hand from flame.
“It’s the only place the Ledger Master does not watch,” she continues. “Because even he does not trust what listens below.”
“What listens?”
A soft laugh. “If it answers you, do not answer back.”
She presses a faintly glowing blue vial into my palm. “Light. It will last until dawn.” A glance toward some unseen measure of time. “Less than four hours.”
Four hours to cross the Deep.
Four hours to breach the Ledger Hall.
Four hours to speak truth over a contract that has fed for three centuries.
Four hours to save my brother.
To end the Master.
To survive what remembers the first broken word.
“Thank you.” The words feel inadequate.
“Don’t thank me yet.” Madame Viscera steps back. “Thank me when you survive. If you survive.” Her weathered face softens—just for a moment. “Your mother was the bravest woman I ever knew. She died trying to free this city. Don’t let her death be meaningless.”
I turn to the stairs. To the void below.
Fear curls in my stomach. Cold and tight and very real. I’ve been running on adrenaline and desperation since Gror’s apartment, since the contract burned itself into my palm. But standing here, staring into that absolute blackness, the reality of what I’m about to do crashes over me.
I’m going to face the creature who murdered my mother. Who caged my brother. Who wants to bind my gift to his service and use me to enslave an entire city.
And I have four hours to destroy him or die trying.
Rathok’s hand finds mine. His fingers lace through mine—warm despite his blood loss, steady despite his wounds. The mark glows where our skin meets.
“With me.” Not a question.
I squeeze his hand. “All the way down.”
We descend into the dark.
