Chapter 20 · The Birth Starts Tonight

The door hums.

Not a mechanical hum. Something deeper. It's in my ribs, in my teeth, in the part of me that ripped open the iron gate with my bare hands ten minutes ago. The steel door at the end of the platform is rusted shut, but whatever's behind it knows I'm here.

Cole's hand is still on my wrist. His palm is hot. He's breathing hard.

"What's behind that door?" I ask.

He doesn't answer right away. His eyes are on the tunnel we just came from. Footsteps. Voices. They're close.

"Records," he says. His voice is rough, like he's still getting used to it. "Your mother's. Yours. Everything the alliance buried when they declared her dead."

I pull my wrist free. "You knew."

"I knew."

"And you didn't tell me."

"I couldn't." He looks at me, and there's something raw in his face. "The curse didn't just take my voice, Ivy. It took my choice. Every time I tried to write it down, my hand locked. Every time I tried to lead you here, my legs wouldn't move. The only way to break it was—"

"Me." My voice cracks. "I broke it.