Chapter 26 · Beyond Shadow's Crossing

The hand didn't stop.

It pushed through the crack in the iron door, fingers spreading wider than any human joint should allow, and the metal screamed as the gap tore open another inch. The ring caught the moonlight. Cole's ring. The one he'd given Leith the week before the mission that killed him.

Cole couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. The voice below kept talking.

"Please, Cole. Five years down here. Five years in the dark. Just let me out."

Ivy was on her knees in front of the cellar door now, both palms flat against the iron, blood running from her nose in two dark lines. Her eyes had rolled back. The runes carved into the door were splitting, one after another, like ice cracking under weight.

"Ivy." Cole's voice came out hoarse. "Ivy, step back."

She didn't answer. Didn't blink. Her fingers started to dig at the edge of the door, nails scraping metal, and the sound made Cole's teeth ache.

The pale hand reached farther through. A wrist. Forearm. The skin was corpse-white, mottled with something darker underneath. Veins, maybe. Or roots.

"I know you're scared," the voice said, and it still sounded like Leith.