Chapter 12 · Hollowborn - Chapter 12: The Living Sacrifice

Cole's fingers went through the first page again.

He stared at his hand like it had betrayed him. The paper slid through his knuckles and landed in the mess around his knees. Ink blurred across the floor. Names. Dates. Orders. Dead people the Guild had decided were easier to erase than explain.

Then the archive door slammed shut behind us.

I spun around with the authorization file clutched to my chest. The lock clicked once. Twice. Somewhere beyond the metal door, boots hit the hall.

"They're here," I said.

Cole pushed himself up. His shoulder passed halfway through the filing cabinet beside him before the rest of him caught up. He staggered hard.

"Ivy. Move."

"You can barely stand."

"Yeah, I noticed. Move anyway."

The lights above us flickered. A thin black line crawled across the ceiling, splitting the stone like a crack in glass. Something on the other side scraped its claws along the opening.

The Gate was getting wider.

I shoved the file under my coat and grabbed Cole around the waist. He was cold. Not winter-cold. Not dead-body-cold. Colder than that.