Chapter 8 · Before the City Kneels

The eye beneath the elevator opened wider.

A red iris filled the shaft below them, vast enough to swallow the platform. Heat rolled up through the grating, carrying the stink of scorched metal and something older—oil, ash, and the bitter copper scent of blood.

Eli stood at the edge of the platform with both hands clamped over his chest.

The ember under his skin had stopped burning like a coal. It was breathing.

Scarlet light pulsed beneath his ribs. Each pulse answered the thing below. The tower shuddered. Bolts jumped in their sockets. Somewhere deep underground, gears the size of buildings began to turn.

Marlow stumbled backward. His shoulder struck the elevator housing, and he nearly fell through the broken railing.

“No,” he whispered. “No, it wasn’t supposed to wake this early.”

Sera pressed one hand against the wound beneath her ribs. Blood had soaked through the side of her coat, dark and glossy in the emergency lights. Her face had gone pale, but her eyes remained fixed on Eli.

“Define early,” she said.

Marlow’s gaze darted toward the red eye. “Before Oren has the command lattice online.