Chapter 24 · Trade My Sister for the City

The core door is bigger than it should be.

I'm standing at the bottom of the city, three stories under the condemned subway platform, and the door fills the whole wall. Black iron. No seams. The same sick shine as the one in the hotel, but this one's awake. It hums. I feel it in my teeth.

Lena's on the altar in front of it.

She's breathing. Barely. Her chest moves like something's sitting on it. She's still wearing the hospital gown from the morgue. Her wrists are zip-tied to the stone, and there's a line of symbols painted across her collarbone in something dark and wet.

Silas stands behind her. One hand on her shoulder. Casual.

"You made good time," he says.

I don't answer. I'm looking at Lena. Her eyes are half-open. She doesn't see me. Doesn't see anything.

Elias is two steps behind me. I hear his chain drag. He's worse than he was an hour ago. The black's climbed up his neck, past his jaw. When he breathes, it crackles.

"She's alive," Silas says. "For now."

I take a step forward. He doesn't stop me.

"The door's been waiting," he says. "Six years.