The stone in his hand was cold, unnervingly so, as if it radiated a chill that had nothing to do with temperature. Quinn Thorne turned it over once, studying the surface, then spoke. "This is a necrotic crypt-stone. The kind of thing you'd only find in a tomb that's been sealed for a thousand years."
"A thousand-year-old tomb..." Bastian Ashford repeated the words quietly, and a visible shiver passed through him despite the warmth of the room.
"This stone has been channeling spectral chill through that orchid continuously," Quinn explained, keeping his tone measured and direct so the man could follow. "The necrotic aura released from a burial site like that, when it's been seeping into a living space over weeks and months, is what caused your daughter's condition. Her body was slowly bei
