Chapter 26 · No Understudy in the Mirror

The last monitor went flat beneath Maeve’s hands.

For one impossible second, the emergency bay held its breath with her. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Rain tapped against the narrow windows. Somewhere beyond the curtain, a phone rang once and stopped.

Then Eli’s body arched under her palms.

“Move,” Maeve snapped at the empty room. “Come on. Come back.”

His skin was warm. Too warm. She felt the shape of his ribs, the stubborn give of muscle beneath his shirt, but there was no pulse under her fingers. The monitor displayed a clean green line that did not move.

DECEASED: ELIAS VALE.

The words crawled across every screen.

Maeve struck the defibrillator pads against his chest. “Charging.”

The machine answered in a voice that was not a machine’s voice.

“Witness required.”

Her throat closed.

At the foot of the bed, the ambulance doors stood open to a corridor that had not existed thirty seconds ago. Black velvet curtains hung where the hospital walls should have been. Beyond them, a narrow passage sloped into darkness, its floor gleaming with rainwater—or blood.

The Curator spoke from somewhere inside it.

“Take your place, Miss Kellan.”

Maeve stared at Eli’s face.