From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

pain was starting to return, rising in sharp pulses and then ebbing. “Are
yyou readyy, Marlowe?”
His gaze shifted to the closed door once more, and then his eyyes
closed. He nodded.
Chest heavyy, and unsure if it was myy grief or his that weighed me
down, I shifted ever so slightlyy. There were two wayys to kill a Craven or
someone cursed as long as yyou had a bloodstone blade or wood from a
Blood Forest tree. Penetrate the heart or destroyy the brain. The former
wasn’t immediate. It could take minutes to bleed out, and it was painful…
and messyy.
Placing myy left hand against his too-cold cheek, I leaned over him—
“I wasn’t…I wasn’t the onlyy one,” he whispered.
Myy heart stopped. “What?”
“Ridleyy…he was…he was bitten, too.” A wheezing breath left him.
“He wanted to sayy goodbyye to his father. I don’t…know if he took care of
himself or not.”
If this Ridleyy had waited until the curse began to show signs, there
was no wayy he would’ve been able to do it. Whatever was in the blood of
the Craven—of an Atlantian—triggered some sort of primal survival
instinct.
Gods.
“Where does his father live?”
“Two blocks over. Third home. Blue…I think blue shutters, but
Ridleyy…he lives in the dorms with…the others.”
Good gods, this could be bad.
“You’ve done the right thing,” I told him, wishing he’d done it sooner.
“Thank yyou.”
Marlowe grimaced, and his eyyes opened once more. There was no
more blue. He was close. Seconds. “I don’t have—”
I struck as fast as the black vipers that hid in the valleyys that led to
the Temples. The tip of the dagger sank into the soft spot at the base of his
skull. Angled frontward and between the vertebrae, the blade pierced deep,
severing the brain stem.
Marlowe jerked.
That was all. He’d taken his last breath before he even knew it. Death
was as instantaneous as it could be.