Chapter 9 · The Only One Who Lived

The woman under the grate was breathing.

Celine dropped to her knees so fast her palms smacked the wet concrete. "Hey. Hey, can you hear me?"

Below her, something scraped against metal. A hand appeared through the gap, fingers shaking, nails split and black with dried blood.

Celine grabbed it.

The woman jerked hard enough to nearly pull her into the tank.

"Don't!" Ethan shouted behind her. "Celine, let go!"

"She's alive!"

"That's why you let go!"

The hand slipped from Celine's grip. The grate slammed shut again, and a face flashed through the gap before the metal covered it. Pale skin. Wet hair stuck to her cheeks. One eye swollen shut.

The other eye looked straight at Celine.

Celine knew that face.

She had seen it on the hospital bed.

Mira Soh.

The woman currently using Celine's name, Celine's access codes, Celine's office, and apparently Celine's entire life.

"Open it," Celine said.

Ethan caught her shoulder. "No."

"Move."

"You don't know what she activated down there."

"She activated something three years ago. Then she walked out wearing my face. I want answers."

"You want proof."

Celine looked at him.

His mouth tightened.

There it was.