The sound followed us through the halls low and hollow, as if a ribcage itself had learned to sing. It pressed against my ribs like a second heartbeat, too sharp to be human, too steady to be alive.

Kael’s grip bruised my wrist as he dragged me faster.

“Don’t look back.”

But I did.

One by one, the torches guttered, each flame snuffed as though something breathed them out. The dark spread like oil, and in it bones gleamed. Skulls strung into a necklace. Ribs threaded into a ...