Chapter 7 · The Box Opens

The door opened on a breath of cold air.

Not the clean cold of winter. This air smelled of sealed metal, old rain, and something sweetly rotten beneath the floor. Eve stood at the threshold with one hand pressed against her ribs, watching pale blue light spill across the flooded tunnel behind them.

The light came from her.

It crawled beneath her skin in thin golden veins, fading and flaring with every heartbeat. The last electrical surge had left her fingers numb and her teeth vibrating. Somewhere behind them, the repair beast screamed as the revived cables tore through its armored hide. The sound still clung to the tunnel walls.

Cain leaned against the doorframe, one arm hanging uselessly at his side. Burn marks climbed from his wrist to his collar. His coat steamed where the acid water had soaked through it.

“Tell me,” Eve said, “that you knew this place was going to wake up.”

His eyes moved over the chamber beyond the door. “I knew it was here.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

“No.”

The answer landed harder than an excuse would have.

Eve stepped inside. The floor was dry, polished, and black enough to reflect her face.