Chapter 16 · When the City Goes Dark

The lights go out everywhere at once.

Not just the hotel. The whole grid. I hear the hum die, feel the air change when every electric thing in the city chokes and stops. My hand's still burning where the key turned, and now I can't see Elias, can't see the door, can't see anything except the faint sick glow coming off my palm.

Then I hear them. Doors. Dozens. Hundreds maybe. All over the city, clicking open in the dark.

"Mara." Elias's voice comes from somewhere close, rough and tight. "Don't move."

"What did I just do?"

"You opened them. All of them."

My knees hit the floor. The key's still there under my skin, a hot knot of metal that shouldn't fit inside a human hand but does anyway. I want to claw it out. I want to scream. I do neither because Elias is suddenly right there, hands on my shoulders, and he's colder than he's ever been.

"Listen to me." His grip tightens. "The doors are open but nothing's come through yet. We have maybe two minutes before the Wardens realize what happened and maybe five before something worse finds us."

"Something worse than Silas?"

"Yes.