Chapter 17 · Brother in the Crack

Nora’s broken wedding ring hit the floor, and the building split open beneath her boots.

Red light punched through the black seams in the concrete. The floor jumped hard enough to throw her into Caden’s chest. He caught her around the waist, but the next jolt ripped them apart.

“Caden!”

A crack tore across the chamber. It ran under the iron platform, through the old control panels, and straight toward the far wall. Heat blasted out of it. Not normal heat. It smelled like burnt pennies, wet stone, and the inside of a furnace.

Then someone screamed from below.

Nora froze.

The voice came again, broken by static and distance.

“Nor—”

“Milo?”

She lunged for the crack.

Caden grabbed the back of her jacket. “Don’t.”

“That was my brother.”

“It’s using his voice.”

The floor dropped another inch.

Nora looked down. Red light pulsed in the gap. For half a second, she saw a hand pressed against the other side of the broken concrete. A thin wrist. A black thread bracelet.

Milo’s bracelet.

He had worn it since he was sixteen, since the summer their mother died. He never took it off.