Chapter 29 · The Thirteenth Heartbeat

Kane's vision doubled. The dead were close enough now he could smell them—burnt wire and old blood and something underneath that made his brain want to shut down completely.

"Move!" Nora had his arm, half dragging him toward the nearest exit. His legs weren't working right. Too much blood on the floor behind him. The wound in his side kept tearing open every time he pushed forward.

Behind them the dead weren't running. They were flowing. Hands reached. Mouths opened. Every single face turned toward him like he was the only person in the room.

Elara stumbled past a row of server banks, her hand crackling with unstable spell-light. "The door's locked from the outside!"

"Break it," Kane said. His voice came out wet. Not good.

"I'm trying!" Elara slammed a pulse of raw magic into the reinforced steel. It didn't even dent. The emergency wards Silas had laid into this place were designed to contain core-level energy. A low-rank mage wasn't getting through.

Mara was leaning hard on Nora, her face gray. "He's not going to make it to any door."

Nora's grip on Kane tightened. "Shut up. He's fine."

"Look at him."

Kane looked down.