Chapter 13 · The Dead City Below

"Don't touch it with your skin!" Lira's hand slammed into my chest and shoved me back from the gate.

My fingertips were an inch from the metal. An inch from getting eaten alive.

"You wanna lose the hand?" she snapped. "That's not a door, Jace. That's a mouth."

"Yeah, I got that," I said. "Thanks for the save. Again."

The gate was huge. Black stone and dead iron, sunk straight into the floor of the abyss. It pulsed. Like it was breathing through the cracks.

And the cracks were full of them. Parasites.

Thin, white, thread-like things. They moved under the surface of the stone, squirming. Waiting.

Bram stood behind us with his rifle up. "We got maybe two minutes before the swarm we outran catches up," he said. "So either we open that thing or we die here. Your call, boss."

"I know," I said.

Lira didn't let go of my jacket. Her fingers were twisted tight in the fabric. Her knuckles white. "My mom's notes said the Old City gates feed on heat. On bioelectric. You touch it, it drinks you. It'll hollow you out in seconds."

"So how'd they ever open it?" I asked.

"They didn't.