"There's more," Osric said, before either of them could recover from what he'd already told them. "The Blood Moon doesn't just amplify what's already there. It completes it."
"Completes what," Mia asked, though some cold, certain part of her already suspected the shape of the answer.
Osric pulled another page from beneath the ledger, older than the rest, the ink faded to a rust-brown that looked disturbingly like something other than ink. "Whatever's taken root in the Ashford bloodline — and I won't pretend to fully understand what that is, only that it's old and it's patient — it needs a vessel strong enough to carry it fully. Not in pieces. Not in stolen hours. Completely."
"And the Blood Moon lets that happen," Lucas said slowly.
"The Blood Moon makes it possible. It doesn't make it
