Chapter 13 · The Heart Below

"Hands up!"

The guard's radio is already in his hand when I tear the badge scanner off the wall. Sparks spit across the lobby. His alarm dies with a wet electronic pop.

"Hey—what the hell are you doing?"

I shove past him. "Call it in and you'll be explaining the damage from the floor."

Iris's map floods my vision—blue hallways, red heat signatures, one massive pulse under the hospital.

"Vera's moving," Alpha says. "Third floor. Heart rate's spiking."

I hit the stairs. No point sneaking now. This is Vera's hospital, her perfect sister's kingdom, with our father's name stamped across the directory.

The walls throb under my palm.

"Tell me that's machinery," I say.

"It's organic."

"Of course it is."

"The nest is active."

I take the stairs two at a time. "How long until it collapses?"

"It won't collapse."

"Then what?"

"It has become part of the structure."

I stop on the landing. "Say that again."

"The hospital and the nest are no longer separate systems."

The third-floor door flashes red. I punch through the handprint scanner. Glass and metal crunch into the wall.

The hallway waits on the other side.

No nurses. No patients. No rolling IV stands.