Chapter 36 · That supposed to impress me?

"That supposed to impress me?"

"No. It's supposed to scare you."

A deep pulse rolled through the stairwell.

The red lights under their feet went dark.

Then a second pulse answered from below.

Elias released Nora and drew the black knife at his belt. "Don't speak."

"You just told me to hold tighter, and now you want silence?"

"I never said that."

"You thought it loudly."

He shot her a look. "Stay behind me."

"Try ordering me one more time."

"Nora."

His voice stopped her.

Not because it was hard. Because it wasn't.

He looked down the stairs, knife angled toward the dark. For the first time since she had known him, he looked less like the outlaw everyone feared and more like a man standing between her and something he already knew would hurt him.

Nora stepped beside him.

"I said behind me," he whispered.

"And I said no. Get used to disappointment."

The bottom of the stairway opened into a round chamber. A massive column stood in its center, wrapped in dead cables and rusted metal bands. Light moved inside it, slow and red, like a pulse trapped under stone.

Elias stopped so fast Nora hit his shoulder.