How her voice reached Ty stayed beyond Jade, but the cost arrived immediately.
The beacon stone split her palm open and drank enough blood to make the basement tilt. Her left eye pulled tight from the inside. For one ugly second, every dead name on Waddell's clipboard tried to turn toward her at the same time.
Aaron Pike, Janice Bell, Mara Ellison, and three more names pulled at her from the clipboard. She had said them with her teeth clenched and her hand burning white.
They stayed down.
Barely.
Kieran grabbed Jade's wrist and forced her bleeding hand over the nested pans.
"Drop the stone before it starts making choices for you."
Jade tightened her fingers around the sharp little thing.
"If I drop it now, Ty signs blind."
"It is cutting deeper every time you speak."
"Everything useful in this room has teeth today."
"That is a terrible philosophy for staying alive."
"I learned from the best and several bad doors."
Kieran followed Jade's good eye to the basement floor.
