Chapter 18 · The Rune Is Eating Me

The passage is collapsing.

Not slow. Not the kind of thing where you get a minute to think it over.

The stone overhead cracks like a gunshot and I'm already moving, already dragging Kael backward by the front of his coat. His weight hits me hard. Blood all down his side from where the assassin's blade went in, and he's still trying to stand on his own like he doesn't have three broken ribs and a death wish.

"Nora." His voice is rough. "The records—"

"Shut up." I don't have time for his priorities right now. The ceiling's coming down in chunks the size of my torso and the air's full of dust and the smell of burnt stone. My hands are shaking. The rune on my wrist is burning so hot I can feel it through my sleeve.

I get him another two feet back. Then the wall to our left buckles.

It doesn't fall. It buckles. Like something on the other side just punched through.

Kael sees it the same time I do. His hand clamps down on my arm. "Move."

"I'm trying—"

The wall comes down.

Not all of it. Just enough.