Page 53 of Gravehouse

Jord hits the floor beside Leon, a sound scraping out of him I’ve never heard before. It drags straight down my nerves.

Reaching for Nonna with a hand that won’t steady, his fingers freeze an inch from her sleeve. They snap back to his chest. If he touches her, it becomes real.

I can’t focus on anything. Nothing but Nonna.

Nonna’s lips part but her chest stays still. I glide my fingers over her cheek, dragging crimson over soft brown skin.

This isn’t happening.This cannot be happening.

“No.” Blood continues to spread beneath her head. I can’t fix this. I—“no, no, no.”

Get up. Do something.

I’m frozen in place, watching the world I knew drain away.

Leon’s voice cuts through the ringing in my ears. “Ivy.”

I shake my head. “Do something. You know medicine, you’ve?—“

“Ivy.” His hand catches my wrist, grip tight. “She’s gone.”

My stomach caves, heat and bile clawing up my throat. I want to scream, want to break Leon’s jaw for saying it, want to rip thirty minutes apart and drag Nonna from that table before the first bullet blew through the window.

Instead I sink back on my heels, blood dripping from my fingertips onto my lap.

“Ivanya.” Daniel watches me from the other side of the room, hands loose at his sides, just as Asher strolls past the shattered window like he’s bulletproof.

They’ll never find them.

I know this like I know the weight of a Desert Eagle in my hand. Like I know the exact angle to sever a femoral artery. Like I know the sound a body makes when it hits concrete from ten stories up.

Whoever did this is already gone.

Punk drags in a breath. “She was laughing. Five minutes ago she was laughing.”

My throat closes.

Death used to be a simple thing, until it landed on our doorstep.

Luce opens her eyes but doesn’t look at Nonna. She looks at me, hazel gaze steady. “You know what we need to do.”

“No.” It rips out of me. “We don’t touch her. We don’t?—”

“Ivy.” Leon crouches closer, palms open between us. “You know this was him. Le Boucher?—”

“Emeric wouldn’t do this!” I stand on unsteady legs. “If—if he wanted her dead, he would have—she said?—”

Jord surges to his feet, chest heaving. “You make too many excuses for that monster. Fuck, Ivy! That codex is fucking rooted inside of you like a bad weed!”

“Stop.” Punk flinches at her own sharpness, shoulders pulling in. “Nonna wouldn’t want us fighting and Luce is right. We need to re-calibrate.”

They know. We all know. This wasn’t random. This was a message.

Leon drags his hands down his jeans, leaving scarlet streaks across black denim. “Then you need to call Emeric. Before he finds out through other channels, because if this was an ordered hit, he’d know.”

Footsteps hit the porch.

Asher fills the doorway, rain darkening his hair. Scanning the room, those pale blue eyes find Nonna first before they lock on me.