Chapter 25 · The Plug

Vera laughed behind the wall before I got the side door all the way open.

Not a big laugh. Not movie-villain bullshit. Just one soft little breath of amusement, like she’d heard me trip on a stair.

Micah grabbed the back of my coat. “Nora.”

“I know.”

“That is not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I’ve got.”

The old platform door groaned as I pushed it wider. My lock picks were still pinched between my fingers, slick with sweat. On the other side waited a narrow service tunnel with dead fluorescent strips overhead and black water shining across the floor.

No emergency lights. No city glow leaking in from the stairwell. Just dark.

And the smell.

Metal. Burned wire. Something sweet and rotten underneath it.

Micah stayed close enough that his shoulder brushed mine. He’d gone pale three blocks ago, then paler when we came underground. Now he looked like he might fall over if I sneezed too hard.

“You can still go back,” I told him.

He gave me a look. “You brought me into an abandoned subway station during a ghost blackout, and now you’re doing the big-sister thing?”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” His jaw tightened.