Chapter 15 · Dad Is in the Cage

"That's him."

I said it out loud before I meant to. My voice cracked on the second word.

Calder's hand locked around my wrist. "Mara. Don't."

"That's my father." I jerked forward, but the cuff yanked me back hard enough to bruise. The glass cage hung from the ceiling on four braided cables, spinning slow under the vault lights. Inside, a man sat slumped against the curve, head down, one arm chained to the floor. Blood smeared the glass near his shoulder.

His hair was grayer than I remembered. His coat was the same.

"Mara." Calder's claws dug into my forearm. "You run at that thing, you'll set off every ward in the vault."

"Then you better keep up."

I shoved past him and hit the catwalk at a sprint. My boots rang on the metal grating. The ward-core sat twenty feet below us, a pulsing knot of silver and red light wrapped in chains and scaffolding. It hummed like a cracked bell, louder the closer I got. The air tasted like copper and burned sugar.

Behind me, Calder swore and launched off the railing.