Chapter 22 · The Council's Living Proof

Kane's hand clamped over my wrist before I could drop the knife.

"Don't." His voice was barely there. Blood ran from his nose, dark and wrong. "The second you let go, the gate anchors to him permanently."

I looked at Leo. At the thing wearing my brother's face.

It smiled. Green light poured from his eyes like someone had cracked him open and shoved a floodlight inside.

"The Gatekeeper thanks you," it said through Leo's mouth. His voice, but the cadence was all wrong. Too formal. Too old. "The contract is rewritten. The beasts kneel to their true master now."

Kane's shadows were still on the ground. All of them. Dozens of sleek, wrong shapes pressed flat against the clinic floor like dogs caught stealing food.

"Get up," Kane said through his teeth.

None of them moved.

The thing in Leo laughed. It sounded like wind through a tunnel. "They cannot. You were only ever the handler, Rook. I am the chain."

Kane's grip on my wrist tightened. "Evelyn. Listen to me. We have maybe an hour before the council detects this. When they do, they'll come for him. For proof."

"Proof of what?"

"That the gate can be opened."