Chapter 2

The black blood crystal in my palm looked unremarkable, its edges lined with cracks.

It was a fragment I had carried back out of the fire.

When I first came back, I'd had no time to examine it closely.

A moment ago, while no one was watching, I had reached into it with my mind and sensed the pact sealed inside.

I had not produced it right away because I refused to give Louis, the real thief, the chance to accuse me first.

Now that he had framed me, there was no reason left to hold back.

When Louis saw it, his pupils contracted sharply.

It was the thing that had fallen from my amulet in my last life, while I hung nailed to the city wall.

The flames had burned away my flesh and bone, but they never destroyed it.

When I woke on the day of the Bloodline Rite, it lay in my palm, holding a trace of the blood pact from my last life.

Grand Elder Blackwood lifted a hand.

"Bring it forward."

A temple guard took the crystal and set it in the moonsilver dish at the center of the altar.

The black crystal trembled. A moment later, a line of blood-red script hung in the air.

[Any use of a Sacred Blood Crystal requires two blood seals of approval: the Grand Elder's and the vault keeper's.]

A sharp intake of breath ran through the hall.

This was not a pact that proved my innocence. It was one of the original safeguards governing the Sacred Blood Vault.

It made one thing clear to everyone: no one could simply take a Sacred Blood Crystal at will.

I raised my eyes to Owen.

"You say these shards were found in my room. Then tell me, how did you determine that they came from a Sacred Blood Crystal?"

Owen froze, then spoke in a rush.

"The First Ancestor's blood scent still clings to them. I would know it anywhere."

"Really?"

I walked to the box. I didn't touch the shards, only bent down for a closer look.

Even shattered, a genuine Sacred Blood Crystal should give off the cool fragrance of night.

But the edges of the shards in the box were dusted with a golden powder.

It was the ash left behind by burned sungrass.

Sungrass grows only in the Daylight Church's lands. The Nightborn will not go near it.

If an ordinary vampire touches even a trace, their skin begins to burn.

I spoke softly.

"Grand Elder, when a true Sacred Blood Crystal shatters, its shards drink in the blood scent around them."

"But these shards are edged with sungrass ash, and the ash is fresh. They never came out of the Sacred Blood Vault."

The Grand Elder's face darkened. He ordered a bone needle brought for a test.

The moment the needle touched a shard, a wisp of golden smoke curled off its tip.

The hall erupted.

Owen went white and stumbled through an explanation.

"Perhaps Lady Isela tainted the crystal with sungrass ash herself, to cover her scent..."

"How thoughtful of you to have my explanation ready."

I straightened, my gaze landing on his stiff face.

"But sungrass ash damages a vampire's veins."

"If I truly meant to steal the Sacred Blood Crystal, why would I destroy its power first? Would I rob a treasury just to walk away with a pile of slag?"

Someone laughed, then quickly went quiet.

Louis finally spoke.

"Isela has a point. But the shards were found in her room, and there was a forbidden curse in her amulet. This can't simply be waved away."

He went on, gentle and persuasive.

"Let the Grand Elder examine her bloodline first, then trace where she's been these past days. If it truly is a misunderstanding, I will apologize to everyone on her behalf."

How very considerate of him.

But I remembered my last life. That was exactly the tone he had used, step by step, to push me toward the master-servant blood pact.

I looked at him and spoke evenly.

"Count Ashford is right. If we're going to investigate, let's be thorough."

I reached up, unclasped the amulet at my throat, and laid it on the moonsilver dish.

"Look closely, all of you. Is this curse veiling my scent, or the scent of someone who had no right to enter Nighthaven?"