Chapter 41 · The Third Door

"You always fight the wrong person."

Kane didn't pull away. His mouth was inches from mine, his breath hot against my lips.

"You always give me reasons."

The mark on my wrist flared.

Black lines ripped through my skin and crawled up my arm, sinking into Kane's open wound. They spread across his ribs like cracks in glass.

Kane jerked. His forehead slammed against mine.

Then his pain became mine.

The city pressed in from every side. A thousand locked doors. The breach beneath us, grinding through bone and stone.

Memories crashed into my head.

Fire behind glass.

A child crying under stone.

Kane on his knees beside a body, both hands drenched in blood.

The vision snapped shut.

I sucked in a breath. "What the hell was that?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me. You saw it too."

"Evelyn—"

"Who was dead?"

His eyes went cold. "Don't ask me that."

"Why? Because the answer is you?"

Kane seized my wrist and tried to rip it from his wound.

The core screamed.

Not with sound. With pressure.

The whole chamber squeezed around us. Stone groaned.