Chapter 8 · The Door Wants Us

The blue curse hit the first glass step and screamed.

Not a human scream. Not even close.

It sounded like metal dragged across somebody's teeth, and every clear stair below Mara's boots lit up with pale blue veins.

Ronan grabbed her arm so hard his fingers bit through her sleeve. "Back. Mara, get back."

"I am trying." Her heel skidded on smooth glass. "Inez, close the door. Close it now."

Inez stood at the gate behind them, both hands locked around the silver key. The glass frame had sealed around it, swallowing half the handle. "I can't. It's stuck."

"Pull harder."

"Thank you. I had not considered that."

The curse crawled down the stairs.

It had no body. Just blue smoke and thin, twitching lines of light. But it moved like it knew where it was going. Every time it touched a step, shapes woke inside the glass.

Faces.

Hundreds of them.

A little girl crying into her hands. An old man laughing with blood on his collar. A woman staring straight up through the stair beneath Mara's feet, mouth moving around words Mara could not hear.

Memories.

Not pictures.