The cellar smelled of crushed herbs and old blood.
Sunrei pressed his back against the damp stone wall, his fingers twitching toward the stolen dagger at his belt. Across the cramped space, Kaelis rummaged through clay vials with the sharp efficiency of someone who'd patched up too many idiots who thought they were heroes.
Moonlight seeped through the cracks in the ceiling above, painting jagged silver lines across the dirt floor. The Blood Moon still hung heavy in the sky he could feel it, like a weight pressing against his skull.
You're staring, Kaelis said, not bothering to look up.
Sunrei wiped at the cut on his lip, his fingers coming away red. You said they could smell blood.
They can. She tossed him a vial filled with something murky and green. Drink this. It'll mask the scent.
He caught it, hesitated.
Kaelis smirked. What, scared?
Sunrei yanked the cork out with his teeth and downed it in one gulp.
Fire erupted down his throat.
He choked, doubling over as the potion burned like swallowed coals. His Eclipse Brand flared beneath its wrappings, a pulse of violet light seeping through the cloth.
When he looked up, Kaelis was watching him. Not with fear with something sharper. Something like hunger.
A shudder rocked the cellar.
Dirt rained from the ceiling.
Little mark-bearer…
The voice slithered through the cracks in the walls, syrupy and wrong.
Come out, come out.
Sunrei's hand found his dagger. It's talking.
Kaelis didn't answer. She was already strapping knives to her thighs, her movements quick and precise.
First rule of demons, she said softly. They always lie.
The floor exploded.
Wood splintered as talons the size of scythes tore through the hatch. Sunrei barely rolled out of the way as the demon's face filled the hole a grotesque mockery of human features stretched too thin, its jaw unhinging to reveal rows of needle-teeth.
There you are.
The stench of rotting meat poured off its tongue.
The Executioner's last heir.
Sunrei froze.
Executioner?
Kaelis moved first.
A knife flashed through the dark, burying itself in the demon's milky left eye. It shrieked, recoiling
just as Sunrei's brand ignited.
Fire licked up his arm.
Memories tore through his skull:
A silver blade plunging into moonlight.
A god's scream.
A vow, whispered in his own voice: I will forget this.
The demon laughed, black blood gushing from its eye socket.
Oh, you don't even know, do you?
Sunrei's dagger found its throat.
The blade sank in deep, black blood spraying across his hands. The demon gurgled, but its grin never faded.
Find the other marked ones… it rasped. Before the Eclipse does.
Then it dissolved into shadow, leaving only its laughter echoing off the walls.
Silence.
Sunrei stared at his hands. They were trembling.
The brand on his wrist still pulsed, the violet light fading slowly.
Executioner's heir.
What the hell did that mean?
Kaelis yanked her knife from the floorboards. We need to move. Now.
Sunrei didn't look up. It knew me.
Worse. She kicked open the ruined hatch, letting in a flood of bloody moonlight. It painted her face in streaks of crimson. It was sent.
Above them, the Blood Moon pulsed like a dying heart.
Somewhere in the dark, another brand burned.
The forest swallowed them whole.
They ran, branches whipping at their faces, the scent of smoke and blood clinging to their clothes. Sunrei's lungs burned, but he didn't dare slow down.
Kaelis led the way, her steps sure even in the dark. She moved like someone who'd spent a lifetime running.
Sunrei's brand ached.
Find the other marked ones.
How many of them were there?
A howl cut through the trees behind them too close.
Kaelis cursed, skidding to a stop. They're herding us.
Sunrei followed her gaze. Ahead, the trees thinned, opening into a clearing.
A trap.
But they didn't have a choice.
The first demon lunged from the shadows.
Sunrei met it with his dagger.