Chapter 11 · Untitled Chapter

"Six and a half minutes." Leon's voice cracks behind me. "That's what we've got left, Ivy."

"I know." I slap my bleeding palm against the archives door. The wood is warm. Too warm. Selina's blood is drying on my skin, the words she carved there itching like they're burning deeper with every second. UNDER THE BARRIER. "Give me a second."

"We don't have a second."

"Then stop talking and let me think."

The door doesn't budge. I shove the brass key into the lock—the key that got my father executed—and twist.

Nothing.

"It's locked," Leon says.

"Brilliant deduction."

"Ivy—"

"Shut up."

I twist the key the other way. Still nothing.

Under the barrier. What did that mean? Selina had spent her last breath saying it, and I'd watched her die three times trying to understand her.

Leon grabs my shoulder. "If Karl's coming—"

"He's not coming here." I yank free and face the door. Old wood. Black iron bands. Forged before the academy had a name. "That's the point. He's scared of this door."

"Or Selina was delirious. Maybe there's nothing behind it."

"She wasn't delirious." My voice cracks. "She used her last words on me.