LOVE ME LIKE A CURSE
— The Elders answered again in perfect unison,
> “None shall hide. None shall flee. The blood remembers.”
Elder Nyra came forth. Tall, pale as frost, her hair long and white. She carried with her a chalice carved from the skull of a saint, the liquid within so black it seemed to drink the torchlight. Her words were colder than Cassian’s and sharper than Seraphine’s and all Elder’s voices.
> “Blood calls to blood, and mark to mark.
The painter is chosen, but she is not yet claimed.
Her blood sings, though she knows not the song.