Chapter 34: Blood Debt and Blade Vows - 3
The fire was dying by the time Rein found himself standing at the edge of the clearing again, the mist curling low around his boots like quiet hands.
He wasn't looking at Iris.
He was looking at her blade.
It lay abandoned in the grass a few paces from the fire, cracked down the center, its sigils darkened but not dead.
The broken metal shimmered with faint, oily red veins—like something inside it was still alive, but trying not to be.
Zeraka watched from where she crouched on a half-fallen tree, chin on her fist.
"Leave it," she said.
"I was going to throw it in the ravine," Rein said.
Valaithe's voice drifted over lazily. "You sure you want to toss something that tried to taste your blood?"
Elaris didn't speak.
She just watched Rein's fingers as they hovered over the blade's hilt.