Chapter 6

"That's not her," Kieran says.

"You don't know that." I pull against him. "Let go."

The black door waits below the broken floorboards. Red light crawls along its edges where my blood smeared the shard. Another knock lands against the wood.

Three. Two.

Then a voice slips through the door.

"Mara-bug? I'm cold."

My knees buckle.

Elise called me that until the night she disappeared. I haven't heard it in three years.

Kieran catches my elbow and drags me back. "No."

"Move."

"Mara—"

"Move, Kieran!"

He plants himself between me and the opening. His face has gone pale. Beneath his torn shirt, the bond mark pulses against his chest. I feel each beat in my own sternum, a second heartbeat punching under my ribs.

"The Registry records everything," he says. "Voices. Memories. Fear. They'll use her voice to make you open that door."

"It sounds like her."

"That's the point."

Another knock. Softer this time.

"Please, Mara-bug. It's dark down here."

My hand goes numb around the shard.

Elise used to say those words when we hid in the basement during Mom's bad nights. I'd hold her hand and make up stupid stories until she stopped shaking.

Whoever was behind that door knew exactly which memory to use.

"We don't have time," Kieran says. "The blackout won't last. When the grid comes back, the Registry will seal every unregistered door in the city. We'll be trapped down there."

"Then let me go. If that's Elise—"

"It isn't."

He turns me toward him. His grip shifts from my wrist to my shoulders, forcing me to meet his eyes.

"You don't get to decide that for me."

"Your sister worked in that vault. She knew what it could do."

"You're lying."

"I wish I was."

His thumb presses against my shoulder. Warm skin. Shallow breath. Too close. He looks exhausted, blood soaking through the shirt I'd given him, but he doesn't loosen his hold.

I shove his chest.

He stumbles back half a step.

"If you hurt her," I say, "the bond won't save you. I'll find a way to kill you myself."

His jaw tightens. "Fair enough."

The knock comes again.

Kieran looks at the door. "Pick one. Trust the voice and die behind it, or help me find out what happened to Elise."

"You knew where to find this place."

"Yes."

"You knew the vault had her last memory."

"Yes."

"And you waited until now to tell me?"

"Would you have followed me if I told you everything?"

"No."

"Then stop wasting time."

I hate that he has an answer for everything. I hate that the bond makes his panic feel like mine.

I point the shard at him. "You go first."

"Gladly."

He crouches beside the opening. Symbols cover the black frame, the same sharp alphabet carved into the shard. They glow beneath the blood smeared across his palm.

"What do they say?" I ask.

"Not words. Commands."

"That's convenient."

"You want a lecture, or do you want your sister?"

"I want you to stop talking like you know she'll be there."

His fingers pause over the nearest symbol. "I know the vault recorded her disappearance. I don't know what it kept."

That answer lands harder than the others.

He presses his bloody palm to the frame.

White light bursts through the symbols. The door swings open without a sound.

Cold air rushes up from below, carrying copper and old paper.

Kieran grabs the railing. "Stay close."

I peer down the spiral staircase. Black stone drops into darkness, tiny bulbs trembling along the walls.

"What happens if I touch something?"

"You might see a memory."

"And if I look too long?"

"You forget it's a memory."

"That's all?"

"People have died here."

He starts down.

I follow because the door behind me is still whispering my sister's name, and because Kieran is the only person who knows how to get back out.

The first step nearly sends me sliding. I catch the railing. Ice-cold metal cuts into my palm.

"Careful," Kieran says.

"Don't sound concerned. It ruins your reputation."

"I can fix that."

He reaches back and catches my hand before my foot slips again. His palm is hot against mine, his fingers closing around them for one sharp second before he lets go.

The bond pulses.

I jerk my hand away. "Don't touch me."

"Then stop falling."

"I wasn't falling."

"You were losing an argument with a staircase."

"Keep moving."

The door slams shut above us.

I spin. The opening is gone. Smooth black stone fills the wall.

"Kieran."

"I know."

"Open it."

"I can't."

"You opened it five seconds ago."

"The vault decides when doors open."

"You left that part out."

"You didn't ask."

I grab the front of his shirt. Pain flashes across his face when I pull at his injured side.

"If we die down here, I'm haunting you."

"Get in line."

He takes my wrist and pulls me onward before I can hit him.

The staircase spirals down until my legs shake. Copper thickens in the back of my throat. Blood. Old blood.

"How long does the bond last?" I ask.

He glances over his shoulder. "Long enough."

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting while the vault can hear us."

"It can hear us?"

"It can hear everything."

"You really should've mentioned that before we started arguing."

"You would've argued quieter?"

"I would've argued better."

The stairs end.

A hallway stretches in both directions, lined with doors. Hundreds of them. Dates are carved above every frame.

Kieran stops in front of one.

March 14. Three years ago.

The night Elise vanished.

My throat tightens. "You were here."

"Yes."

"You were with her."

"Yes."

"You had a knife."

His eyes stay on the door. "Open it first. Accuse me after."

"You don't get to set the order."

"Mara, the memory is already decaying."

The date blurs as a line of white light crawls beneath the door.

Kieran grabs the handle.

"Wait." I step in front of him. "Why has nobody found this?"

"Because the Registry doesn't store memories where people can search them. It stores them where doors remember who they're meant for."

"And this one remembers me?"

"It remembers Elise. Your blood gave it permission."

That should make me stop. It doesn't.

"If I see you kill her, I'll break your neck."

"If you see me kill her, you won't need my permission."

He opens the door.

Rain hits my face.

The hallway disappears. I'm standing in an alley behind the old Registry building. Elise is twenty feet away, soaked through, her red coat stuck to her shoulders. A shard glows in her fist.

"You lied to me!" she shouts. "You said it was safe!"

A younger Kieran steps from the shadows. His jacket is clean. His face is colder than the man beside me.

"It is safe. You're not supposed to have it."

"I'm not giving it back."

"Elise—"

"No. I'm done running errands for you people. I've seen the lower-vault files. I know what the Registry does."

She lifts the shard.

"This opens every sealed door in the city, doesn't it?"

"You don't know what you're holding."

"My baby sister does. That's what you're afraid of."

My breath catches.

Younger Kieran takes one step toward her. "Give me the shard. I'll make sure they leave Mara alone."

"You can't promise that."

"I can try."

"That's not good enough."

"They'll kill you."

"Better me than her."

The memory jumps.

One instant, Elise is standing. The next, she's on the ground in her red coat, blood spreading across the fabric. Kieran holds a knife. Red stains his hands.

I lunge for him.

The real Kieran catches me around the waist. His chest slams into my back, stopping me before I can reach the younger version.

"Look at the cut!" he snaps. "Mara, look!"

The scene stutters. Rain hangs in the air. Elise's hand freezes halfway toward the ground.

Between her standing and bleeding, the memory has lost several seconds.

No struggle. No strike. No sound.

Just a jump.

"Someone edited it," Kieran says against my ear. "They removed what happened between those frames."

I shove his arms away. "You were holding the knife."

"I picked it up after I found her."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No. I expect you to notice the blood."

I look again.

The blood on Kieran's hands doesn't match the blood on Elise's coat. His is dark and wet. Hers is already black at the edges, as if the memory has been replayed too many times.

Kieran points at the frozen alley. "The edit was made from inside the vault. Someone wanted the record to blame me."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"You always know."

"Not this time."

The memory tears apart.

I hit the stone floor on my hands and knees. Kieran lands beside me, breathing hard. The smell of rain and blood clings to my clothes.

"You found her like that?" I ask.

"Yes."

"And then what?"

"The Registry arrived. I ran."

"You left her there?"

"I was bleeding out, and they had a kill squad behind me."

"You left my sister."

His eyes flash. "I went back. She was gone."

The hallway lights die one by one.

Kieran rises and draws the knife from his belt.

"Stay behind me."

"You don't get to order me around."

"For once, do it anyway."

A voice moves through the walls.

Soft. Familiar.

"Drop the shard, Mara."

Every hair on my arms lifts.

Kieran's knife comes up. "Don't listen."

"You said the vault only replayed memories."

"I said it records everything."

The voice speaks again, closer now.

"Mara-bug, he didn't find me. He delivered me."

Kieran goes still.

My fingers tighten around the shard. "Elise?"

"Don't say her name," Kieran whispers.

"Why?"

His face breaks—not guilt this time. Fear.

The black door at the end of the hallway unlocks with a heavy click.

Elise's voice breathes through the gap.

"Ask him what he traded for your life."

Kieran grabs my arm and reaches for the opening, but I wrench free and raise the shard between us.

"What did you trade?" I demand.

He takes one step toward me. "Mara, if you open that door—"

The handle turns from the other side, and Kieran lunges as I—