I made the small cut across my palm exactly as we had practiced, blood welling dark against my skin, and I watched Callahan's eyes track the movement with an intensity that told me every instinct in him had narrowed entirely down to this single moment.
Let it fall, he said, voice gone soft, almost reverent. Onto the stone, where I can collect it properly.
I hesitated, timing everything precisely against the signal Mabel had described, waiting for the exact moment his focus would be fully committed, fully invested in the collection itself rather than any possibility of danger.
Now, I said quietly into the earpiece hidden beneath my hair, and let three drops of blood fall onto the stone within the circle exactly as planned.
The reaction was immediate. The symbols carved into the ground a
