Chapter 8 · The Door Under Her Brother

"You knew." I didn't ask. I shoved the dying man's map into Mina's hands hard enough that she stumbled back a step. "You knew the core was under your brother's safehouse the whole time."

She looked at the bloodstained paper, then at me. Her face didn't move. "I suspected."

"Suspected." I laughed, and it came out ugly. "You dragged me through half the city, got me shot at, nearly broke my skull open in that collapse, and you suspected?"

"I needed to be sure."

"Sure of what? That I'd follow you like an idiot? That I wouldn't ask questions until it was too late?"

She folded the map with quick, precise movements, like she was folding a surgical drape. "That you could actually reach it. The lines chose you, Jace. Not me. Not anyone else. If I told you where it was before we knew you could navigate the rifts, we'd both be dead and the core would still be sealed."

"Your brother's sitting on top of a bomb," I said. "How long were you planning to wait before mentioning that?"

"He doesn't know."

"That makes it better?"

Her jaw tightened. "It makes it safer.