Crimson Contracts

s a city bu

emnants of ancient magics and unspoken curses. No sun rose over Eldemire. It hadn't for centuries

ran

idn't

watch bells rang

er hounds howled

o stutter with the echo of magic-o

lt was

uld fe

, or chosen, or powerful. She was just a half-breed-neither wolf nor vampire,

t the

o steal the

self. It crouched at the heart of the city like a buried god, wrapped in black stone and curse

oof onto the rear balco

wa

le

with sigils. The key. Not the original, but close enough. It had cost her th

to the lock and whispe

or shu

es flar

en it

es lined the narrow corridor-hooded things with outstretched hands and hollow eyes. She

and empty-except for the dagger flo

rimso

arkly, a liquid crimson edge that seemed to pulse in time with her hea

swall

epped

ed the blade-and

in the Va

and fire and whispers. Voices echoed t

Bone to seal.

ded behind

areness. It wrapped around her bones like a second skele

had cho

laime

d as she hi

now the dagger lay in her hand-no longer floating, no longer pa

ir sh

on s

heart

-to-face with the last p

er eyes. W

ce K

like she'd just

d, stepping forward, the light catching on t

ed, lifting the blad

owed. "You st

e

ai

el didn't cha

lliding in a blur of fists and growls. Lyra slashed at him with the bla

was hot aga

ike blood an

d, driving her kn

led. Jus

a railing, and vanished into

swallowed

he sewers where old vampires slept in brine and bone. Her body burned, bu

until she reache

g bookshop, warded with w

lapsed against the wall,

ared

th

e. Ins

we be

t, she di

dr

e and

lord with eye

d her throat-and his

f, crowne

city is

s bur