Page 64 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Tegan’s face tightened. “The Lord of Blood.”

Nishi’s voice stayed clipped. “That would explain the escalation. It would explain the ritual arrays.”

Eve shook her head once, firm. “They can’t.”

Faith looked at her. “Why not?”

Eve’s gaze stayed steady. “They can’t bring Shezmu back without Lunara.”

That name landed like another missing puzzle piece.

I frowned. “Lunara was the key.”

Eve nodded. “If they wanted Shezmu, they needed her. Without her, they’re not resurrecting him. They’re not anchoring him. They’re not pulling him fully through.”

Faith leaned back in her seat, frustration evident in the way she exhaled. “So if it’s not Shezmu, what the hell are they doing?”

Eve’s voice went colder. “Using the relic to call the dead. Feeding fear. Creating chaos. There are plenty of ways to profit from that.”

Nishi’s phone buzzed with an update. She glanced down, then said, “Downtown sightings continue. Victor is holding, barely. Delia is burning herself out wiping minds.”

Tegan’s face tightened. “We don’t have long.”

I stared at the tracker in Tegan’s hands, at the bone needle that refused to point into the center. “So we have a three-mile blind spot. That’s where the relic is, or where it was recently.”

“And we have a name,” Faith said. “Dagna Fade.”

Eve’s phone stayed silent, but the tension in her shoulders suggested she expected it to scream again at any second.

Then Faith’s phone rang.

She checked the screen, and her expression changed. Not fear. Not anger. Something more personal.

“Cal,” she said, and hit speaker before anyone could ask.

Cal’s voice filled the SUV, smooth and low, though he sounded worried. “Faith.”

Faith’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“I need you to tell me something,” Cal said, voice tight. “Do you sense anything wrong with the egg?”

Faith blinked once, and for a heartbeat she looked almost thrown. “No.”

Cal didn’t sound relieved. That was the problem.

He exhaled. “I knew you’d say that.”

Faith’s posture shifted, tension returning. “Cal.”

His voice dropped, quieter, as if admitting it cost him. “I can feel something. A calling. It’s not loud, but it’s persistent. It’s drawing the weak. The ones that should stay tucked away. It’s stirring hunger.”

My skin prickled.

The word calling echoed in my head like a bell.

Faith’s gaze flicked toward Eve, then toward me, then forward again. “Where are you?”

“In the forest,” Cal said. “Near the pocket realm entrance.”