Chapter 17 · Dad in the Dark

The voice came again. Same rasp. Same weight.

"Kai, don't move. He's already inside."

I froze. Vera's hand tightened around mine, her knuckles white against the hilt of her blade. The corridor stretched ahead, sterile white walls humming with a frequency that made my teeth ache. No doors. No windows. Just that voice, crackling through speakers I couldn't see.

"Who's inside?" I called out. My own voice bounced back flat, swallowed by whatever material lined this place.

Silence.

Vera pulled me back a step. "Kai. We need to assume it's a recording."

"It knew my name."

"So does Luca. So does half the city by now." Her eyes tracked the ceiling, the seams where wall met floor. "Voice synthesis isn't hard if you've got source material."

She was right. I knew she was right. But my chest was doing that thing again, the mark pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat, and it felt like it was pulling me forward. Toward the voice. Toward the man who might be my father or might be bait wrapped in his face.

"Third gate," the voice said, quieter now. "You opened it. That wasn't supposed to happen for another six months.