Chapter 13 · Don't Come Down

The red door keeps splitting.

Rona can't look away. Light bleeds up from below, wrong light, the kind that makes her teeth ache. It smells like copper and burnt hair and something else, something she doesn't have a word for. The voice is still ringing in her ears. Mom's voice. Don't come down.

Grimm's already moving. Not toward the hole. Toward her.

"Back," he says. One word. The tone he uses on bounties who won't drop their weapons.

She doesn't move. Can't. Her knees are locked. Vale's still on the ground behind her, curled on his side, shaking. The blood seal hit him hard. She can still feel the echo of it in her own veins, a buzz that won't settle.

Grimm grabs her arm. Not gently.

"We're leaving," he says. "Now."

"That was her." Rona's voice comes out flat. She's surprised it comes out at all. "That was Mom."

"It wasn't."

"I know her voice."

"You don't know anything." He's pulling her back, away from the widening crack. His hand is shaking. She feels it through his grip. Grimm doesn't shake. "Move."

"Let go."

"Rona—"

"Let go!" She twists, trying to yank free. He holds on.