Chapter 23 · The Purge List Bleeds

The vault door slammed shut behind them hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

Nessa spun toward it anyway, one hand already on the cold metal. On the other side, something huge hit the door once. Then again.

The sound came through the old Rook house like a hammer through bone.

“Tell me that thing can’t get in,” Elias said.

Nobody answered him.

That was bad.

Nessa pressed her palm harder against the door. The forbidden sigil under her skin burned hot, a nasty little pulse under the bones of her wrist. Blue-black lines crawled over the vault lock, then vanished into the iron.

“Cael,” she snapped. “You said this would hold.”

Her brother stood three steps away, one hand braced against the stone wall. Blood had soaked through the side of his shirt. He looked older than the boy she remembered. Harder. Like somebody had taken Cael Quill apart six years ago and put him back together wrong.

“It will hold for a minute,” he said.

“A minute?” Elias barked. “That’s your big plan?”

“It’s better than being torn open in the foyer.”

Another crash hit the door.

Elias flinched.