THE BLOODLINE THEY TRIED TO ERASE

The dead man had been staring at me for eleven seconds before he whispered my name. "Nyla." I stopped with a tray balanced on one hand. The man stood near the end of the bar, his dark jacket soaked with rain, one palm pressed against his stomach. Red seeped between his fingers. "Do I know you?" I asked. His eyes darted toward the nightclub entrance. The music pounded around us, lights swept across the crowded dance floor, and nobody seemed to notice the blood dripping onto the polished floor beneath his shoes. "Sir, you need to sit down," I said. "You're bleeding." "Listen to me." He caught my wrist. "Whatever they tell you, don't believe them." "Who?" His grip tightened. "Your mother" He stumbled. I dropped the tray and caught his shoulder before his head struck the bar. "Jade!" I shouted. "Call an ambulance!" My best friend appeared beside me, her expression changing the moment she saw his blood. "Holy s**t. What happened to him?" "I don't know. He came in like this." "Then let him go. Nyla, you're not a doctor." "He can barely stand." "And you're about to be covered in his blood. Let security handle it." The man dragged in a ragged breath. His gaze locked onto mine with such desperate intensity that I forgot the noise around us. "Don't let them take you to The Veil Council." "What The Veil Council? Who are you?" He opened his mouth, but a violent cough interrupted him. His knees buckled, and I lowered him to the floor. "Someone get the manager!" Jade yelled. "Now!" I pressed a clean bar towel against his wound. "Stay with me. The ambulance is coming." "No." His fingers closed around mine. "You mustn't let them find you." "Who is looking for me?" His lips trembled. "The three houses." Then his hand fell away. "Hey!" I shook his shoulder. "Look at me. Can you hear me?" He didn't respond. I checked for a pulse, barely remembering the first-aid training we'd received when I started working at The Velvet Hour. My fingers slipped against his wrist. Nothing. "Jade, I can't find his pulse." She crouched beside me, her face suddenly pale. "Move your hand. Let me check." "I already checked." "Nyla, move." She pressed two fingers against his neck, waited, then looked at me. "Call emergency services," she told a nearby bartender. "Tell them we have an unconscious man who isn't breathing." "I think he's dead," I whispered. "Don't say that." "Jade" "Don't." Her voice cracked on the last word. I looked down at the stranger. I had served hundreds of customers since taking this job, and most of them forgot my name before their drinks were empty. This man had known mine without asking. He had also known something about my mother. I should have stood up. I should have let the paramedics handle him when they arrived. Instead, I noticed the blood spreading beneath his hand. A dark drop slipped over my knuckle. The world disappeared. I was standing in a room made of black glass. Three figures stood around a circular table, their faces hidden behind silver masks. Something glowed beneath the glass floor, pulsing like a heart buried deep underground. "She's alive," a man said. "She cannot be," another voice answered. "The bloodlines were separated." "Not all of them." A woman stepped into the light. I couldn't see her face clearly, but I knew the shape of her mouth, the curve of her cheek. I had seen those features in the only photograph I owned of my mother. "No," I whispered. "That's impossible." The woman turned toward me. "Find the child," she said. "Before the Council" A sharp crack split the room. Someone behind her screamed. Then a voice spoke directly into my mind. Run. I spun around. There was nobody behind me. Run, Nyla. They know you're awake. I tried to answer, but my throat wouldn't move. The black-glass floor shattered beneath my feet, and the room collapsed into darkness. "Nyla!" I jerked upright. Jade gripped my shoulders while the nightclub lights flashed over us. The dead man lay motionless between us, and my hands were still pressed against his bloodied shirt. "Look at me," Jade demanded. "Nyla, look at me." I stared at her. "What happened?" "You tell me! You went completely still. I was calling your name, and you wouldn't answer." "How long?" "Maybe ten seconds. I don't know." She glanced at the man. "You scared me." "I saw something." "What?" "A room. Three people. A woman who looked like my mother." Jade's expression changed. "Your mother is dead." "I know what I was told." "Then what are you saying?" "I don't know!" My voice rose, drawing a few curious looks from the people nearest us. I forced myself to lower it. "I touched his blood, and I saw something that wasn't here." Jade looked at my hands. "Could you have hit your head?" "No." "Are you sure? Because this isn't funny." "Do I look like I'm joking?" She swallowed. "No. You look like you're about to pass out." "I feel fine." "You're shaking." I looked down. My fingers trembled against my knees. Before I could answer, a man in a black security uniform pushed through the gathering crowd. "Everyone, step back. Give the victim room." "Is he alive?" Jade asked. The guard knelt, checked the stranger's neck, then reached for his radio. "Medical team to the main floor. We have a confirmed fatality." Jade grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let's get you away from him." "I need to tell someone what I saw." "And what exactly are you going to tell them? That a dead man's blood showed you a room that doesn't exist?" "I don't know!" "Then wait until you do." The guard glanced at us. "Were either of you involved in what happened?" "No," Jade answered quickly. "We found him like this." I couldn't look away from the dead man's face. His eyes were open. For one terrible second, I thought he was watching me again. Then the lights above the bar flickered. Once. Twice. Every screen behind the counter went black. The music continued, but the bartender swore under his breath and tapped the nearest monitor. "What the hell? The system just crashed." "Probably a power surge," the guard said. "Then why are the emergency lights still working?" Nobody answered. I felt a strange pressure beneath my skin, as if something inside me had shifted when I touched the blood. Jade squeezed my hand. "Nyla, we're leaving." "I can't." "Yes, you can. You're coming with me." "What if I see it again?" "See what?" "The room." Her eyes searched mine. "Then you tell me. But you're not touching anything else, and you're definitely not touching him again." "I wasn't planning to." "Good. Because tonight has officially become the worst shift of my life." A strained laugh escaped me, but it died almost immediately. The dead man's right hand had moved. I was certain of it. His fingers, which had been curled against his stomach, now rested beside a phone half-hidden beneath his jacket. "Jade." "What now?" "Look at his hand." She turned. "What about it?" "His phone." "Nyla, leave it alone." "I think he wanted me to find it." "You think a dead stranger wanted you to find his phone?" "I don't know what I think anymore." The security guard stood and spoke into his radio, turning his back to us. The bartender was still arguing with someone about the failed screens. For a moment, nobody watched the body. I reached toward the phone. "Nyla!" Jade hissed. "I'll only pick it up." "You are going to get us both arrested." "I'll explain everything if I have to." "You can't explain something you don't understand!" Her warning came too late. My fingers closed around the phone. The screen lit up. I nearly dropped it. "Jade, I didn't press anything." "Put it down." "I didn't!" The screen remained dark except for a thin red line running across the glass. It pulsed once, matching the strange rhythm I could suddenly feel beneath my own skin. Then the phone vibrated in my hand. A prompt appeared. BLOOD AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED. My stomach tightened. "That's not normal," I whispered. "No kidding. Put it down!" A tiny bead of blood slid from my fingertip onto the screen. The phone unlocked. Jade stopped speaking. A photograph appeared, old and slightly blurred. It showed a newborn wrapped in a white blanket, with a silver symbol stitched near the baby's shoulder. I knew the shape of that symbol. I'd seen it in the black-glass room. "No," I breathed. Jade leaned closer. "Who is that?" I couldn't answer. The photograph was followed by a second image: a document stamped with a seal I didn't recognize, its text too damaged to read. Then the screen went completely black. One line appeared in stark white letters. ECLIPSE BORN LOCATED. My fingers went numb. "Jade, that baby is me." Phone buzzed again: ALPHA KING KAEL DRAVEN HAS CLAIMED THE KING ORDER