Meet my Overprotective Brothers
On a floating obsidian desk lay a journal, its cover bound in the scales of a Void-Warm.
Caleb stayed near the entrance, his palm still throbbing from the blood-tithe. He didn't touch the artifacts; he was too busy watching the shadows. Because his blood was now the "key" to the house, he perceived the library not as a collection of rooms, but as a living creature. He saw "Shadows" flickering, semi-corporeal silhouettes that stood in the corners, watching them with eyes like cold stars. They were the echoes of Rowena’s past, and they looked at the Thorne brothers with a hunger that made Caleb’s hand drift toward his daggers.