Chapter 27 · The First Door Was Hers

Cass's father's voice was still echoing up from the seal when Mara's hand closed around the ring.

Not gently. Her knuckles were white and her jaw was set in that way that meant she'd already decided something stupid. The kind of stupid that usually ended with Cass waking up at dawn with a new scar to explain.

"Don't," he said.

She didn't look at him. Her eyes were locked on the stone slab between them, the one that had been humming since he'd touched it five loops ago. The hum was louder now. Lower. It made his teeth ache and his ribs feel like they were vibrating out of sync with his heartbeat.

"Your father just told you not to trust me," Mara said. Her voice was flat. "So I'm guessing you're about to do something really brave and really dumb, like take the ring back and go in alone."

"That's not—"

"Shut up, Cass."

He shut up.

The seal was carved into the floor of the old tower's lowest room, a place that wasn't supposed to exist according to every campus map he'd stolen.