All Chapters of Shadows and First Blood: Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

Sleep didn’t come easy. The sanctuary had too many kinds of quiet.When I gave up pretending, I followed the draft down the corridor until the floor dipped and the air changed. The stairwell hadn’t existed yesterday. That was the thing about this place—it liked to improvise.At the bottom, the light came from a single brass lamp. Shelves crowded the stone walls, loaded with jars, relics, and books that sighed when I passed. It smelled like clove smoke and old storms.Lucian was there, sleeves rolled to the elbow, sigils chalked down his arms. The lines pulsed faintly—wards or scars, hard to tell.“Can’t sleep?” he asked.“Sleep and I are in a trial separation,” I said.

The door shut behind us like a verdict. The wards sang once—short, satisfied—and went quiet as grave dirt.Maeve took one look at my arm and swore in Irish that sounded older than manners. Niall already had a cloth in his hand. He pressed it to the cut, calm as a funeral director who’s seen enough to skip theatrics.“Glamour?” Maeve asked.“Three of him,” I said, nodding at Lucian. “All annoying. Two accurate.”Lucian snorted. “Which two?”“I’ll plead the Fifth.” I let Niall’s cloth do its job and didn’t flinch when he poured something that smelled