Chapter 9 - LENA

Mara wanted to run to her.

Every part of her body screamed that this was her sister.

The face, scar and familiar mannerisms were all right.

But Lena’s feet were bare on freezing stone.

She did not shiver.

“Mara,” she said. “He lied to you.”

Ezra gripped the lantern.

“Don’t listen.”

Lena laughed.

“He kept me here.”

Mara looked at Ezra.

“Is that true?”

“I kept what came out of the river here.”

Lena’s face changed.

Pain.

Human pain.

“He chained me.”

Ezra closed his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Fed me like an animal.”

“Yes.”

“Burned me with iron.”

Caleb raised the rifle toward Ezra.

“Back away.”

Ezra stared at him.

“That thing in your ear is making you protect her.”

Caleb’s jaw tightened.

Mara stepped between them.

“No shooting.”

Lena moved closer.

“I remember the river.”

Mara’s heart pounded.

“I remember you holding my wrist.”

Tears ran down Mara’s face.

“I remember you saying, ‘Don’t let go.’”

Only Lena knew that.

Ezra whispered, “The Echo knew it the moment it entered her.”

Lena reached toward Mara.

“I’m still me.”

Mara almost touched her.

Then she saw the ear.

Lena’s left ear canal was black.

Not shadow.

Moving darkness.

Mara stopped.

Lena’s expression went flat.

“You saw.”

The human warmth vanished from her voice.

Caleb groaned and grabbed his head.

The thing inside his right ear pulsed beneath the skin.

Lena looked at him.

“Come here.”

Caleb took one step.

Mara blocked him.

“Fight it.”

“I’m trying.”

Lena’s voice deepened.

“Caleb.”

He dropped the rifle.

Ezra shouted, “Iron!”

Mara swung the poker toward Lena.

She recoiled with a shriek.

Her face changed.

For one second, her skin seemed too loose around something underneath.

Then she ran into the dark.

Caleb collapsed.

Mara knelt beside him.

His eyes opened.

Black threads had appeared across the whites.

He whispered, “It knows where the heart is.”

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Then he smiled with a mouth that did not belong to him.

“And now it knows how to stop yours.”