Chapter 29 · The Lock Beyond City Limits

"You won't make it in time." Celia's voice scraped out, hoarse and bloody. She was still on her knees, but her eyes tracked me like a predator. "Three hours to the quarry. You don't even have a car."

I didn't answer. The silver tooth was burning a hole in my pocket. Jonah's voice still ricocheted in my skull—*the core isn't just a lock, it's a door*—and I didn't want to think about what that meant.

Rafe grabbed the duffel. Iron tools. Blood vials. His hands shook. Not much. Just enough that I knew he was running on fumes.

"We go now," he said. "No stops."

"Jonah said it's a door." I shoved the tooth deeper into my pocket like that would make it less real. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Means Celia wasn't lying about one thing." His jaw locked. "We screw this up, the city doesn't just go dark. It burns."

I slung my bag over my shoulder. "Then we don't screw up."

We hit the street and the cold slammed into me. The sky was wrong. Too red.