Chapter 10 · The Ring Isn't Fake

The door under the subway tracks opened another inch, and something on the other side screamed my name.

Not shouted. Not called.

Screamed.

"Nora!"

My knees almost gave out. Caden caught my arm before I hit the cracked concrete, his blood already soaking through the side of his shirt where Selene's bullet had gone in.

"Don't listen to it," he said.

The voice came again, closer this time.

"Nora, baby, run."

My mother's voice.

I shoved Caden's hand away. "You said she was dead."

"I said the woman who died in Calder Fire was your mother. I didn't say everything that happened before that."

"That is the most useless answer I've ever heard."

The metal door groaned. Heat rolled through the gap and hit my face. It smelled like hot pennies, burnt rubber, and the sharp stink of old blood.

Behind us, Selene's footsteps scraped over the tunnel floor.

"Move," she called. "Or I start shooting again."

Caden turned, putting himself between me and the gun. His face had gone hard, but his breathing wasn't right. Too fast. Too shallow.

He was hurt worse than he wanted me to know.

"You're bleeding through the bandage," I said.

"I noticed.