Chapter 13 · The Girl Under the Bell

"Don't touch the bell." Cade caught Evelyn's wrist before her fingers reached the black metal.

His grip locked around her hard enough to stop her, not hard enough to break bone. Not yet.

Evelyn twisted, drove her elbow toward his ribs, and nearly got free. Cade turned with her and pinned her hand against the stone pillar beside the bell shaft. His badge hung at his throat. His other hand rested near the knife at his belt.

"You said the bell was the way out," she snapped.

"I said it was the way down."

"Same difference when the ceiling is trying to kill us."

Above them, the final bell swung on a chain thick as a man's arm. No one touched it. Still, it moved.

Every slow turn made the chamber shake.

Black dust spilled from the cracks in the ceiling. A red glow pulsed deep below the iron grate under their boots. The city was burning somewhere above them, and the heat had reached the buried vault.

Cade leaned close. His breath brushed her cheek, hot and sharp with smoke.

"Listen to me," he said. "If that bell rings, the reset starts."

"Good."

His jaw tightened. "No.