Chapter 28 · The Names Still Breathe

The vault answered my blood with a sound like a giant tooth snapping shut.

Everything stopped for half a second.

Then the floor under my knees split wider, black water punched up around my ribs, and my father grabbed for my throat again.

“Don’t,” he choked.

His fingers slipped on my wet skin. Blood ran down one side of his face. Mine or his, I didn’t know anymore.

I drove my elbow into his bad shoulder.

He screamed. Let go.

I kicked away from him before he could catch me again, hit the side of the vault door, and nearly lost the wrench still stuck through my belt.

The whole chamber groaned around us.

Somewhere above the water, Sera shouted, “Nia! Get away from that seal!”

Too late for that.

The old Vale crest under my palm had opened like an eye.

Thin lines of red light crawled through the metal door. They followed the shape of my handprint. Then they ran outward, over carved names I hadn’t seen before. Hundreds of them.