Chapter 20 · The Ashfall Core

The tunnel ended at a door that had no right to exist.

It rose from the rock like a slab of night, seamless and taller than the old civil-defense station above it. Thin veins of red light crawled across its surface, pulsing in time with something deep beneath their feet. Dust drifted from the ceiling with every pulse. Somewhere behind the wall, gears the size of houses turned with a slow, grinding patience.

Xia Lan pressed one hand against the door.

Heat seeped through her glove.

Her reflection stared back from the black metal: a pale, exhausted girl with silver eyes, blood dried along her temple, and one wing dragging uselessly behind her. The face was hers now. The memories inside it were not.

Behind her, Nolan caught Milo by the collar before the boy stumbled into the wall. Nolan’s mouth moved sharply.

Xia Lan watched his lips.

Stay back.

The words arrived without sound. She understood them only because she had learned the shape of them, because his face had become a map she could read even when the road beneath it was gone.

She nodded.

Nolan’s jaw tightened. He looked toward the corridor they had crossed.