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The voice came from underground.
Kai's dad. Screaming his name.
Not the name on the Red Heron register. Not the heir name Luca had been using all morning. The name his mom used to yell across their apartment when he tracked mud inside. The name that hadn't been spoken out loud in this city until right now.
"Kai-bear, please—"
Kai's knees almost buckled. He caught himself on the edge of the stone table, fingers scraping cold marble. The mark under his ribs flared hot, then cold, then hot again. His pulse hammered in his ears. That was his dad. That was his actual dad. Not some Red Heron trap. Not some memory trick.
"You hear it." Luca's voice came from behind him, low and satisfied. "Good. That saves us time."
Kai spun around. Luca stood near the door with his hands folded behind his back, perfectly calm. Vera was three steps to Kai's left, her jaw tight, her blade half-drawn. She looked like she wanted to put it through Luca's throat.
"What the hell is that?" Kai's voice cracked. He hated how it sounded. Thin. Young. Scared.
"That," Luca said, "is why you're here."
The scream came again. Muffled. Desperate. Kai's chest squeezed so hard he thought the mark might crack a rib from the inside.
"Kai-bear, I can't—please, I can't hold it—"
"Shut up." Vera's hand closed around Kai's wrist. Her palm was still sticky with blood from the sparring match earlier. Her grip was iron. "Don't move."
"That's my dad," Kai said. He tried to pull free. She didn't let go.
"That's bait," Vera said. Her eyes stayed on Luca. "And you're about to bite."
Luca tilted his head, almost amused. "Miss Crowe, I admire your caution. But the man down there is quite real. As is the gate he's holding shut."
Kai's stomach dropped. "What gate?"
"The one your father opened six years ago." Luca stepped forward. His boots clicked on the stone floor. "The one he couldn't close. The one he's been standing in front of ever since, bleeding himself dry to keep it from tearing the district apart."
The room tilted. Kai grabbed the table again. His dad. Six years. The debt. The calls that stopped. The apartment in Queens that got quieter and quieter until it was just Kai and a stack of past-due notices.
"You're lying," Kai said.
Luca's smile didn't reach his eyes. "I wish I were. Your father was a talented man. Ambitious. He wanted to prove the Lin family still had old-gate access. He succeeded. Unfortunately, he also triggered a failsafe nobody remembered was there."
"So let me see him," Kai said. His voice came out harder this time. Steadier. "If he's real, let me see him."
"That's the plan." Luca gestured toward the far wall. A section of the marble shifted, grinding open like a mouth. Stone stairs led down into darkness. The air that rolled out smelled like rust and burnt hair. "He's been asking for you."
Vera's grip tightened. Her nails bit into Kai's wrist. "You go down there, you don't come back up the same."
"He's my dad."
"He's leverage," Vera said. Her voice dropped lower. "Luca doesn't do charity. He wants something."
"I want the gate closed," Luca said. He didn't look at Vera. His eyes stayed on Kai. "Your father has been holding it for six years. He's dying. The mark in your chest is the only thing that can take his place."
Kai's breath caught. The mark. The thing that turned pain into power. The thing every clan in Mirrorfall wanted to cut out of him.
"You want me to stand in front of a gate," Kai said slowly, "and bleed."
"I want you to close it," Luca said. "Properly. Your father couldn't. You can. That mark isn't just a weapon. It's a key."
Another scream echoed up from the stairwell. Weaker this time. Wet. Kai's hands shook.
"Kai." Vera pulled him around to face her. Her eyes were dark and furious. "Listen to me. You go down there, he owns you. You hear your dad, you do what he says, and you end up chained to that gate forever. That's the play."
"Then what do I do?" Kai's voice cracked again. He hated it. Hated how small he felt. "Just leave him down there?"
Vera's jaw worked. She looked like she wanted to say yes. Instead, she let go of his wrist and stepped back. "I'm coming with you."
"Miss Crowe—" Luca began.
"I'm coming," Vera said. Her hand moved to the hilt of her blade. "Or we find out right now if you're faster than me."
Luca studied her for a long moment. Then he smiled. "As you like. But if the hounds wake up, you're on your own."
Hounds. Kai's stomach turned over. "What hounds?"
Luca didn't answer. He just gestured toward the stairs.
Kai went.
The steps were slick. Old blood, maybe. Or something worse. The air got colder as they descended. The mark under Kai's ribs pulsed in time with his heartbeat, hot and insistent. Vera stayed close behind him, her breath steady, her footsteps silent.
At the bottom, the stairs opened into a narrow stone corridor. Runes covered the walls, glowing faint red. Some of them flickered. Some were dark. At the far end, a door hung half-open, bent inward like something had tried to smash through from the other side.
And in front of the door, kneeling in a circle of broken runes, was Kai's dad.
He looked smaller than Kai remembered. Thinner. His hair was streaked with gray. His hands were pressed flat against the floor, and the skin around his wrists was black and cracked, like burnt paper. Blood pooled under his knees.
His head lifted. His eyes found Kai's.
"Kai-bear," he whispered. His voice was raw. Shredded. "You came."
Kai's throat closed up. He took a step forward.
Vera grabbed his shoulder. "Wait."
Something moved behind the door.
A low growl rolled through the corridor, deep enough to rattle Kai's teeth. The bent door creaked. Claws scraped stone.
"Dad," Kai said. His voice barely worked. "What is that?"
His dad's face twisted. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought I could control it. I thought—"
The door exploded outward.
A hound the size of a car lunged into the corridor. Its body was wrong. Too many joints. Too many eyes. Its fur was matted with something black and wet, and its jaw hung open, dripping.
Vera shoved Kai sideways. Her blade flashed out, catching the hound across the snout. It screamed—high and sharp, not like any dog Kai had ever heard. The mark in Kai's chest flared white-hot. Pain ripped through him, and the air around his fists ignited.
He didn't think. He just swung.
His knuckles connected with the hound's skull. The impact sent a shockwave through the corridor. The hound's head snapped back, and it crashed into the wall, twitching.
Kai stood there, breathing hard, his hands still burning.
His dad stared at him. "You have it," he whispered. "You have the mark."
"Yeah," Kai said. His voice shook. "What the hell is it?"
His dad's eyes filled with something Kai couldn't name. Grief, maybe. Or guilt. "It's mine," he said. "I gave it to you. Before I left."
Kai's world tilted again. "You—what?"
"I didn't know what else to do." His dad's hands trembled. "They were coming for me. For the mark. I couldn't let them have it. So I split it. Half for me. Half for you. I thought—I thought you'd be safe."
Vera swore under her breath. "You carved a gate-seal into your kid and sent him home."
"I didn't have a choice," Kai's dad said. His voice broke. "I didn't—"
The hound twitched. Its eyes snapped open—all six of them.
Vera moved fast, blade coming down, but the hound rolled sideways and lunged for Kai's dad. Its jaws closed around his shoulder. His dad screamed.
Kai moved without thinking. He grabbed the hound's jaw and pulled. The mark burned through his chest, his arms, his hands. The hound's bones cracked under his grip. He threw it backward into the corridor. It hit the far wall and didn't get up.
Kai dropped to his knees beside his dad. Blood soaked through his shirt. His shoulder was a mess of torn fabric and worse.
"Dad—"
"Take it," his dad gasped. He grabbed Kai's wrist with his good hand. His grip was weak. "The key. Take it. Close the gate."
"I don't know how—"
"You will." His dad pressed something into Kai's palm. Cold. Metal. A key, small and old, with a Lin family crest stamped into the handle. "You'll know. You're my son."
Vera crouched beside them, her face tight. She looked at the key, then at the dying hound, then at Kai. "We need to move. Now."
Kai's dad's hand slipped away. His eyes started to close.
"Dad—" Kai's voice cracked. "Don't—"
"Kai." Vera pulled him upright. Her hand was bloody again, slick and warm against his arm. "He's not waking up. And we've got company."
Kai looked up. More growls echoed from deeper in the corridor. Red eyes flickered in the dark.
Vera dragged him toward the stairs. Kai's legs moved on autopilot. His hand closed around the key. It was warm now. Pulsing.
Behind them, the hound's body twitched one last time. Something small and silver slipped out of its collar and clattered onto the stone.
Another key.
Kai stopped. Vera cursed and pulled harder, but Kai twisted free and ran back. He grabbed the second key. It was identical to the first. Same crest. Same weight.
Except this one had an inscription on the back.
Two words, stamped in Mirrorfall script: Luca Han.
Kai's blood went cold.
Vera grabbed him again, and this time he didn't fight. They ran.