Chapter 81: The Gathering
Torin Sterling pulled the heavy collar of his sheepskin coat over his lower jaw, wrapping a strip of frayed wool around his neck before stepping out onto the frost-crusted terrace. The negative fifty-degree air hit him like a physical blow, driving the breath straight back into his aching throat and triggering a dry, hacking cough that spat dark spots of frozen blood onto the marble steps. He ignored the burning in his chest, clutched a heavy brass tire iron in his bare, blackened fist, and stumbled down the buried carriage drive toward Crestline Avenue.
The howling squall had stripped the snow from the center of the road, leaving a treacherous sheet of gray ice that had cracked under the extreme cold.
Torin trudged through the drifts banked against the stone g
