Chapter 17 · Heartbeat in the Wall

The wall cracks like ice over deep water.

Rona's still staring at her mother's hand pressed flat against the blood-slick membrane when the sound hits. Not a snap. A split. Wet and slow and wrong. The kind of sound that means something big just woke up.

"Run." Her mother's voice cuts through the blood haze. "Rona, RUN."

Grimm's already moving. He grabs Rona's shoulder, yanks her back so hard she stumbles. "Move. Now."

But Rona's not looking at him. She's looking at the crack spreading across the prison wall, black ooze welling up in the seam. And past it, past her mother's panicked face, something else. Movement. A shape too big for the space it's in, pressing against the membrane like a fist inside a glove.

"What is that?" Ghost's voice is a rasp behind her. The fugitive's on her knees, one hand pressed to the gash in her side, blood leaking between her fingers. "What the hell did you people cage down here?"

"Shut up." Grimm doesn't even look at her. He's got his tracker array out, scanning the wall, and his face is the kind of calm that means he's three seconds from murder or retreat. "Rona.