Chapter 14 · The Inspector’s Cage

The floor dropped another inch beneath them.

Stone groaned in the dark, a deep animal sound that vibrated through Lio’s teeth. Dust poured from the cracked ceiling. Somewhere beyond the collapsed record chamber, metal screamed as one of the archive bridges tore loose and vanished into the depths.

Cael’s hand closed around Lio’s wrist.

“Move.”

His voice had recovered its usual command, but his fingers were cold. Not cool from the underground air. Cold like iron left beneath winter water.

Lio looked down at the place where her palm had touched his chest. The second seal still burned beneath her skin, a pale gold shape pulsing in time with the dragon-scale rhythm under Cael’s ribs.

Inside her, Oro had gone silent.

Not quiet. Silent.

That frightened her more than the beast’s voice.

Mara stumbled out from behind a leaning shelf, one hand clamped over a cut above her eyebrow. “The eastern passage is gone. The western one is filling with steam, and I can hear something moving under the floor.”

“Then we use the inspection shaft,” Cael said.

Mara stared at him. “The one beneath the Inspectorate?”

“Yes.”

“That shaft is sealed.