Chapter 25 · Two Laylas Behind the Door

Kira's fist hit the door hard enough to split her knuckles. The wood didn't even dent.

"Layla!" Her voice cracked. She could hear screaming on the other side—two voices, both Layla's, one shrieking in terror and the other laughing like something had crawled inside her throat and made a home there. "Layla, answer me!"

Nothing. Just that laughter, rising and falling like a broken radio signal.

Kira slammed her shoulder into the door. It didn't budge. The hallway around her stretched longer, the walls pulling away from each other, the ceiling climbing higher until the lightbulb overhead looked like a distant star. The floorboards groaned. The air smelled like burnt hair and old copper.

She'd lost her. She'd let Layla walk through that door, and now the maze had her.

"Damn it." Kira pressed her forehead against the wood, breathing hard. Her Bureau mark burned under her shirt, the sigil etched into her ribs flaring hot like it was trying to remind her she'd failed before and she was failing again. "Layla, if you can hear me—don't listen to anything in there. Don't trust it. Don't—"

A voice came through the door. Quiet. Shaking.

"Kira?"

Layla.

Kira's heart kicked.