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"Move!"
"Don't order me around."
"Then move because it's trying to eat you."
The thing wearing Kellan's face hit the maintenance bridge hard enough to bend the rail. Nia grabbed an overhead cable and swung sideways. Black fingers snapped shut where her throat had been.
Metal shrieked. A strip of bridge tore loose and dropped into the dark.
The creature crawled over the broken rail. It had Kellan's jaw, brown eyes, and the old scar beneath one eyebrow. The rest of it kept slipping out of shape. Skin peeled into paper strips. Teeth opened across its mouth, then vanished.
Nia fired twice.
The rounds punched through its chest. No blood came out. Pale letters spilled into the air like burning receipts.
The thing looked down at the holes.
Then it smiled with Kellan's mouth.
"Great," Nia muttered. "That worked beautifully."
Elias caught her wrist and hauled her toward the upper access door. His left shoulder was soaked through, and his bad leg buckled every few steps. He still moved faster than anyone with two good legs had any right to.
Nia ripped her hand free. "Don't touch me."
"Fine. Walk faster."
Behind them, the creature unfolded to its full height. Its spine clicked one vertebra at a time. The bridge shook under Nia's boots.
A broken speaker above the access door crackled.
"Nia."
She stopped.
Elias stopped too, but he didn't look at the speaker. He looked at her.
Kellan's voice came through the static, thin and chopped apart.
"Don't trust him. Elias Rook pulled the lockdown. He sealed the Crownstack."
The creature made a wet clicking sound behind them.
Nia stared at Elias. "You said you didn't know why the city locked down."
"I said I didn't know why it spread."
"That's not what I asked."
The speaker popped. Kellan's voice split into three overlapping echoes.
"He did it."
"He did it."
"He did it."
Elias stepped closer. "Nia, we've got maybe ten seconds."
"Good. You can answer in ten seconds."
The creature lunged.
Elias shoved Nia through the access door. Its claws clipped his coat and ripped a long gash down his back. He stumbled through after her, slammed his palm against the emergency panel, and kicked the door shut.
The monster hit from the other side.
Metal bowed inward.
Nia grabbed Elias by the collar and slammed him against the wall. Pain shot through her ribs, but she held him there. His head struck the panel with a dull crack.
"Did you lock the city?"
His breath came rough. "Yes."
The answer hit harder than the monster.
For one stupid second, Nia forgot how to breathe.
Then she hit him.
Her fist caught the cut above his cheek. His head snapped sideways. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
"You locked twelve districts," she said. "You trapped millions of people."
"I know."
"You trapped Kellan."
"I know."
"You let me crawl through a dead market, dodge enforcers, and steal an ember for my brother while you hid behind your family's security teams."
"I wasn't hiding."
"What do you call it?"
"Surviving."
She hit him again.
The door buckled. Dust sifted from the ceiling.
Elias didn't raise his hands. That made her want to hit him worse.
"Tell me you didn't know what would happen."
His eyes held hers. "I knew the first district would seal. The lower gates would close. Transit would stop. The power grid would fracture."
"And the memory system?"
His jaw tightened.
"Elias."
"I knew it would wake."
The door screamed behind him.
Nia shoved him harder. "You knew?"
"I didn't know it would take people."
"Kellan's in there."
"I know."
"Stop saying that!"
Her voice cracked through the narrow room. Elias flinched—not from the hit. From her.
The emergency panel beside his head blinked red.
LOCKDOWN INTEGRITY: 19% UNAUTHORIZED KEY: DETECTED PURGE TEAMS: 02:41
Tavi's voice burst through the ceiling speaker.
"Nia, Elias, if either of you is still alive, I'd love to hear a confirmation."
Nia shoved Elias away and slapped the comm switch. "We're alive."
"Fantastic. Try staying that way. Your little confession just lit up half the district."
"What confession?"
"The system heard you yelling. It's pulling your location from the bridge sensors."
Elias limped toward the next door. "Can you open the lift shaft?"
"I can open it. I can't make the lift work."
"Then open it."
"Bossy for a wanted traitor."
"I'm not a boss anymore."
"Yeah, I noticed. Every screen in the district has your face on it now. Very dramatic. Your mother's looking for you."
Nia looked at Elias.
His face went still.
"Veyra," she said.
"Don't start."
"She's hunting you."
"She's hunting both of us."
"Because you broke her system?"
"Because I know what it does."
The door behind them split down the middle.
A black claw punched through.
Tavi swore over the speaker. "You've got ninety seconds before the purge teams reach the bridge."
"Open it!" Nia yelled.
The next door unlocked with a heavy clunk. Elias crossed the room, dragged it open, and found a vertical shaft on the other side. No lift. No ladder. Just cables, maintenance braces, and a drop that disappeared into red emergency light.
Nia leaned over the edge. "How far up?"
"Thirty floors," Elias said.
"Of course it is."
"It's the only route to the core gate."
She turned on him. "And you know that because?"
He looked down into the shaft. "Because I built the access map."
Nia laughed once. It came out sharp and empty. "You built the city's cage too?"
"I helped build the lock."
"Same thing."
"Not even close."
"Then explain it while we climb."
The bridge door groaned. The creature pushed one arm through the gap. Paper skin peeled from its fingers, exposing metal bones underneath.
Elias wrapped a cable around his forearm. "Three days before the lockdown, my mother moved the reserve guards into the lower districts."
"Why?"
"To clear them for Founding Day."
"That's next month."
"She moved it forward. The broadcast wasn't a speech. It was a system reset. Everyone connected to Crownstack services would've had their memory profiles copied, filtered, and rewritten."
Nia gripped the next brace. "Rewritten how?"
"Riots. Ration cuts. Disappearances. The old purges. Every record tied to them would've vanished."
Her stomach went cold.
"Kellan's identity record."
"Deleted."
"You found the order."
"I found the archive order."
"And you locked the whole city instead?"
"I tried to cut the Crownstack off from the summit."
"By trapping everyone inside."
"It was supposed to isolate the core for six minutes. Long enough for me to shut down the reset and release the districts."
"But it didn't."
"My mother moved the core sigil into the memory network before I could reach it."
Nia looked at the burn on her palm. The ember sat beneath the skin like a coal, pulsing with every beat of her heart.
"The ember," she said.
Elias nodded. "It isn't fuel. It's a key."
"What does it open?"
"The part of the system that remembers what the city was told to forget."
Tavi cut in. "I hate to interrupt the family therapy, but purge teams just reached the bridge."
Gunfire rattled through the sealed room.
The creature shrieked. It no longer sounded like Kellan. It sounded like a hundred voices saying Nia's name at once.
Tavi's voice sharpened. "There's a second broadcast coming through the district grid."
Kellan's voice returned, stronger this time.
"Nia, listen to me. Elias didn't just trigger the lockdown. He used the Calder bloodline to open the core."
Nia's eyes snapped to Elias.
He went pale.
"What does that mean?"
"Nia—"
"What does it mean?"
The emergency lights flashed. The burn on her palm lit the shaft deep orange.
Elias stared at it like it had just spoken to him.
"My mother needed a living Calder signature," he said.
"Why?"
"To unlock the old core gate."
"And you brought me here because you knew I could open it."
"I brought you here because Kellan was already inside."
"That's not an answer."
His gaze dropped to her palm. "No. It isn't."
The monster tore the bridge door off its hinges.
Enforcers stormed through behind it, armored rifles raised. Red targeting beams crossed Nia's chest.
"Down!" Elias shouted.
He kicked a loose power cell into the doorway.
Nia dropped. Elias fired once.
The shot hit the cell.
White fire filled the room.
The blast threw Nia into the shaft. Her shoulder slammed into a brace, and her fingers caught the cable just before she fell. Elias went over the edge too. His hand closed around her wrist.
For half a second, they hung there.
Above them, enforcers shouted. The memory creature crawled into the shaft, its long body folding around the cables.
Elias's bad leg kicked uselessly at empty air.
"Let go," he said.
Nia looked up at him. "What?"
"If it grabs you, it'll pull you back. Let go of me."
"You first."
"I can't climb."
"Neither can I."
"Then stop arguing."
The creature dropped toward them.
Nia hooked one boot around a brace and hauled Elias sideways. They crashed onto a narrow maintenance platform three floors below. He landed hard on his injured leg and bit off a yell.
Nia rolled into the wall. "You're bleeding again."
"So are you."
"Mine's not leaking through my pants."
"Lucky you."
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to stab him. Instead, she grabbed the next cable and climbed.
The shaft shook with gunfire above. Bullets sparked against the braces. The creature followed, but its body kept breaking apart between levels. Kellan's face appeared in one torn section, then dissolved into a smear of pale symbols.
Nia climbed faster.
Her palm burned every time she touched metal. The ember pulsed harder, almost in time with the system alarms.
At floor twenty-three, Elias caught up. He climbed one-handed, teeth clenched, blood dripping from his boot.
"Nia," he said.
"Not now."
"If the core scans you—"
"What?"
"It may mark you as hostile."
"Your family's machine already marked me as a terrorist."
"This is different."
"Of course it is."
"The core gate doesn't arrest threats."
She pulled herself onto the next brace and looked down at him. "What does it do?"
Elias's face tightened. "It executes them."
The shaft went quiet for one strange beat.
Then Tavi came through the comm, scared for the first time. "Nia, I'm reading a gate activation six floors above you."
"Can you shut it down?"
"No."
"Can you lie?"
"I can lie beautifully. The gate doesn't care."
The broken creature slammed into the brace below them. Its fingers wrapped around Elias's ankle.
Nia threw herself down, caught his coat, and kicked the thing in the face.
Its features scattered. Kellan's eyes stared up at her through the broken skin.
"Don't trust him," it whispered.
Nia's boot slipped.
Elias fired into the creature's hand. The fingers burst into white fragments, and he tore free.
"Climb!" he yelled.
They reached the top platform together.
A round steel door filled the wall ahead. No handle. No panel. Just a shallow depression in the center, the exact size and shape of Nia's palm.
The burn under her skin flared hot.
"That's it?" she asked.
"That's it."
"And if I touch it?"
"The gate will read your blood."
"You said it executes threats."
"It won't see you as a threat."
Nia turned slowly. Elias stood close enough that his breath warmed her cheek. Blood ran from his mouth. His fingers hovered beside her burned hand, close but not touching.
"Why not?" she asked.
He didn't answer.
"Elias."
His eyes lifted to hers. "Because you're not an unauthorized intruder."
"Then what am I?"
He glanced at the glowing mark beneath her skin.
"You're the last living Calder."
The steel door gave a deep mechanical click.
Nia's pulse jumped. "My family died before I was born."
"That's what Veyra wanted everyone to believe."
"You knew who I was."
"I knew the moment the ember answered you."
"And you still used me."
"I brought you here to save Kellan. I didn't know the core would wake the bloodline."
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
The depression in the door filled with orange light. A line of text appeared across the steel.
CALDER SIGNATURE CONFIRMED.
BEARER: NIA VALE.
SECONDARY CLAIMANT: ELIAS ROOK.
Nia stared at the second name. "Secondary claimant?"
Elias's expression changed—not fear this time. Recognition.
Behind them, the creature dragged itself onto the platform. Its face kept trying to become Kellan's, but now it wore Elias's eyes too.
Tavi shouted through the comm, "Nia, don't open that gate! The system just paired your signature with Elias's!"
The door unlocked another inch.
A voice spoke from the other side. It sounded like Kellan, but the words were clear.
"Open the gate, little sister."
Nia's hand froze above the glowing depression.
Elias grabbed her wrist. His skin was hot against hers. "Don't listen to it."
She looked at him. "Why did it call me—"
The door began to open.