Chapter 18 · The Eyes Behind the Door

Cole's blood hit the stone and the door drank it.

Not absorbed. Drank. He watched the red spread across the carved symbols like roots reaching for water, watched it disappear into cracks he hadn't seen before. The cut on his palm kept bleeding. More than it should. The blood kept flowing and the door kept drinking and he couldn't pull his hand away.

"Cole." Ivy's voice came from somewhere behind him. Flat. Wrong.

He tried to turn but his legs wouldn't move. His boots were stuck to the temple floor. Not stuck. Rooted. He could feel something pulling at him through the stone, something that wanted more than blood.

The door shuddered. Dust rained down from the frame. The symbols he'd bled on started to glow, pale yellow like infected wounds, and the temperature dropped so fast his breath came out white.

"Cole, I can see it."

That was Ivy again. Still flat. Still wrong. He forced his head to turn and immediately wished he hadn't.

She was standing three feet away. Her eyes were open but they weren't hers. Too wide. Too still.