Chapter 9 · The Brass Oath - Chapter 9: Echoes of the Dead

"Get away from it, Mara." Cain's hand locked around my wrist before I could touch the open core.

The brass device spun between us, its plates peeled back like metal petals. Blue-white light punched through the gaps. It lit Cain's face from below and made the scar along his jaw look almost black.

"You heard him too," I said.

"I heard a voice." Cain shoved me behind him. "That doesn't mean you put your hands inside a machine that just spoke your father's name."

"It said his name."

"I know what it said."

"Then stop acting like I'm imagining things."

His grip tightened. The oath burned across my chest, hot enough to make my knees dip. Cain felt it through the bond. His head snapped toward me.

"You're losing control."

"I'm standing."

"Barely."

The voice came again from inside the core, thin and broken, like someone talking through a wall of water.

"Elias Voss."

My lungs stopped working for half a second.

Cain's fingers shifted higher on my arm. His thumb pressed against my pulse.

"Mara, don't answer it."

"Why?"

"Because it wants a response."

"You know that how?"

"Because I've seen this kind of machine before.