Chapter 118 Shadows Beneath Stones

• Katie's POV
• The courtyard still smelled of iron and smoke when I left the fountain, but the stench faded with each step away from the castle and into the lanes that spread outward like veins. My boots were smeared with old blood that would never wash out; I kept thinking I could scrub it away with running water, but the marks seemed to sink deeper than the skin. They were inside me now.
• “Take care of them,” I told the twins, hard and quick.