Chapter 21 · A Heartbeat for the Gate

The Ledger was screaming in my hands.

Not sound. Worse. A vibration that climbed up through my burned palms and burrowed into my chest like something trying to nest. Mira's weight was still on top of me, both of us sprawled on the cold stone where she'd tackled me out of the blade's path. Her breath came fast against my ear.

"Don't," she said. "Whatever you're thinking, don't."

But the rift door was still there. Hanging in the air like a wound, edges jagged and wrong. Through it I could see the monitor. Ivy's monitor. Red light flashing in that too-bright hospital room I'd sat in a hundred times, the one that smelled like antiseptic and the coffee I could never finish.

The Ledger pulsed. The monitor pulsed.

Same rhythm.

"She's dying," I said. My voice didn't sound like mine. "Right now. That's her heart rate."

Mira pushed up off me, but her hand stayed locked around my wrist. The one holding the Ledger. "You don't know that. Cassian said it's bait."

"Cassian's not the one watching his sister flatline."

I tried to yank free. Mira's grip tightened, and I felt the heat of her palm even through the burns.