Chapter 12 · The Ember's True Name

"Tavi Quill."

The white door said his name.

Tavi stopped breathing.

Behind Nia, boots hammered through the maintenance tunnel. Red light washed the pipes. Someone shouted, "Drop your weapons! Get on your knees!"

Tavi couldn't look away from the door.

"Tavi." The voice again. Soft. Warm. Almost laughing. "Baby, you always hide when you're scared."

His face went gray.

Nia grabbed his sleeve. "Don't answer it."

"That's my mother."

"No, it isn't. Your mother is dead. You told me she died when you were nine."

"I know what I told you."

"Then act like it."

The door had no handle. No keypad. No seam except the thin black line around its frame. The Crownstack's core had asked for a living person's true name, and now it was using Tavi's.

Or it was using the one thing he'd just lost.

His mother's voice came through again.

"Tell them who you are, sweetheart. Tell them your real name."

Tavi's fingers twitched. He'd spent the last hour pretending the memory exchange only took a sound. A voice. One tiny piece. He'd joked about it while they ran. Complained about the price.