Chapter 29 · The Other Calder

"You finally came."

The voice came from inside the furnace room, low and cracked, like Calder's but older. Meaner.

I yanked Calder back by his wing, hard enough that he hissed. "What the hell is that?"

"That," Calder said, not looking at me, "is why I didn't want to come here."

The furnace door swung wider. Heat rolled out, thick and wrong, the kind that tasted like burnt hair and stone dust. Through the shimmer I saw him.

Another Calder.

Same cracked wings. Same hunched shoulders. Same damn smirk, except this one had blood crusted under his claws and a chunk missing from his left horn.

"No," I said. "No, you don't get to drop this on me now. We've got twenty minutes before that cuff burns through my wrist and you're telling me there's two of you?"

Calder finally looked at me. His eye was all pupil. "Not two. A copy. A bad one."

"Bad how?"

"Bad as in it wants us both dead."

The double stepped into the doorway, dragging one leg. Its wing scraped the frame. When it grinned, I saw teeth filed sharp.

"She's pretty," it said. "Dad didn't mention pretty."

My stomach dropped.