Chapter 15 · The Thirteenth Lock

"Don't touch that door." Cade caught my wrist before my fingers reached the black metal.

His grip burned. The life-link under my skin tightened with his pulse.

I looked from his hand to his face. "You dragged me into the core, chained me to you, and now you're worried about a door?"

"I'm worried about what opens it."

"You mean me."

"I mean the thing inside you that keeps trying to tear this city apart."

I jerked against him. He didn't let go.

Behind us, the broken Memory Eye hovered in the air. Its glass shards spun like a school of knives. Every piece showed a different Elias—laughing, bleeding, standing behind a younger Cade with his mouth open around words the ninth bell had stolen.

He hadn't erased me.

He—

The memory snapped apart again.

"You knew the core was here," I said. "You knew Elias had been inside it. You knew the Eye kept his memories. How much more were you planning to hide?"

Cade stepped closer. The chain between our wrists scraped over the stone.

"Enough to keep you alive."

"That answer stopped working three bells ago."

"It still works. You're breathing."

"So are you.