picking up the voice of shadows and distant things,” Titus said, removing his fingers. He flipped the tag on it.

Tess noticed the label was scribbled roughly, rather than in the sweeping, beautiful cursive that filled the other tags.

“It uses blood to power the thing, which can be dangerous. It's one of the few objects that I added to this vault. I found it at a garage sale.” Titus swallowed and dropped the tag. “I gave it to my dad. It was one of the only times I saw him smile. He let me write the tag and everything.”

He stepped back and looked around. “There are few things I added since then, but that was the first.” Titus’s face had turned hard at the mention of his dad. He glanced down the aisle toward a solid metal gate. It was bolted t...

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