Chapter 24 · The Key in Her Pulse

"Adrian, I can hear it."

Mara's voice cuts through the ringing in my ears. I'm still on my knees in the wreckage, hands shaking, and she's already on her feet. The shattered resonator smokes between us. Every copy that spoke my real name is gone, but the air still tastes like burnt copper.

"Hear what?" I push myself up. My ribs scream. "We need to move. That seal—"

"The lock." She grabs my wrist. Her fingers are ice cold. "The one you said you've been hearing. I can hear it now."

I freeze.

She shouldn't be able to hear that. Nobody else has ever heard it. It's been in my head since I was twelve, since the first time I tried to trap a curse without a vessel and felt something snap inside my chest instead.

"Mara, let go."

"No." She steps closer. Her pupils are blown wide, and there's something else in her eyes now. Something that looks like the dead zones when they first start to tear open. "It sounds like your heartbeat. But slower. Like it's waiting."

"That's the breach talking. You got hit with resonance bleed—"

"Don't lie to me." Her grip tightens. "Not now.