Chapter 21 · The Voice Under Ice

"That's not his voice."

Virrak's hand closed on my shoulder before I could move toward the sound. His grip was iron, the kind that meant don't.

"Lynn," the voice came again from deeper in the ruin, echoing off stone that shouldn't carry sound like that. "You've come so far. Come farther."

I shook Virrak off. "My father's dead."

"I know." Virrak's tone was flat. "Which is why we're leaving."

"Like hell." I stepped past the first archway, into the corridor that sloped down. The numbers were going crazy now—threat assessments flickering red, then gold, then nothing. The system didn't know what it was looking at. That made two of us.

The air got colder with every step. Not wind cold. Bone cold. The kind that made you feel like the ice was inside you, spreading.

"Lynn Korde." My name again, but this time it layered—two voices, three, more. All of them had my father's cadence but none of them had his warmth. "The council cast you out. I can give you what you need to cast them down."

I stopped. "What do you want?"

"To wake up."

Virrak caught up, breathing hard. "Don't answer it. Don't negotiate.