Chapter 20 · No Way Back

The name came out wrong.

Ivy heard it start—felt the first syllable scrape against her skull like a hook dragging through meat—and then Cole's hand slammed into her chest and shoved her sideways. She hit the ground hard, shoulder cracking against stone, and the rest of the name went wide. It punched into the wall behind where she'd been standing. The rock split. Not cracked. Split, like someone had taken an axe to it from the inside.

Cole was already moving. Fire roared up his arm and he hurled it straight at the yellow eyes, didn't even shape it into anything, just let it go wild and hungry. The thing wearing Haleon's body jerked back, and for half a second she saw its face clearly. Haleon's face. But the jaw was unhinged, hanging too low, and the eyes weren't sitting right in the sockets.

"Move," Cole snapped, and Ivy scrambled up.

The temple was shaking harder now. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and somewhere deep in the walls she could hear stone grinding against stone. The door behind the altar—the one that had been sealed—was open. Just a crack. But the smell coming through made her gag.