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understood and nodded, wasting no time on bravado. In unison this time they charged the door, and under their combined weight, the whole thing finally gave way at the hinges and crashed inward.
    Oren went sprawling but Kris kept his balance and then reached down to drag Oren to his feet. I broke into a jog again and found the door to the basement. This one was unlocked, and I breathed a soft moan of relief. We piled through it and then locked it behind us with a loud, solid clank of iron deadbolts.
    We half staggered down the stairs in pitch-blackness, and I nearly fell when I reached the unexpected end of the steps. I didn’t want to risk a light, so I felt my way forward. From the feel of the air, cold and damp, it was a concrete basement, good for little more than storage. My fingers encountered a brick pillar, and I let myself slide to the ground, still gasping for air. For all Oren’s training as we traveled south, nothing could prepare me for running for my life from the shadows again.
    A hand touched my knee, and I reached out. As his fingers curled around mine, I recognized the touch—Oren. Strong, callused fingers. Steady, despite the headlong flight we’d just taken. Though his touch caused an answering, unpleasant tingle of magic draining through my arm, I didn’t pull away. Even that was better than nothing in this darkness. Footsteps approaching told me where Kris was, and he dropped to the ground beside us, his legs pressing against my feet. Then, finally, a tiny buzzing form lurched out of the darkness and buried itself beneath the curtain of my hair.
    We were all here.
    Over the harsh sounds of breathing and the occasional scrape of clothes on stone, I could hear heavy footfalls overhead. The shadows had found the building.
    Oren’s fingers tightened through mine. I was half afraid Kris would reach for me too, but he didn’t, staying where he was, pressed up against my legs. I heard him swallow, though, the sound audible in the echoing blackness.
    A howl lanced the silence from above—first one, then more and more joined it in a dreadful, chilling parody of a chorus. Then, a thud—and another, and another. They’d found the door.
    I closed my eyes, gathering in my power. The blast from the Wall had shaken me, but it hadn’t drained me—it was all there, just roiling and impossible to control. Still, I didn’t need control right now. I just needed power. If the shadows got through that door, I was the only thing that would save Oren and Kris. If the shadows got through, I’d rip them apart.
    More thumps and howls echoed down, making us flinch with every noise. A terrible screeching lashed my eardrums as one of them tried to claw its way in, fingernails raking down the metal door. I ground my teeth against the sound until they ached.
    The seconds dragged on into minutes, and the minutes dragged into measureless hours. In the darkness, touch was all we had—I could feel every movement Kris made, pressed against my legs, and Oren’s hand remained warm and strong wrapped around mine. Nix made what I could only hope it intended as soothing sounds, a low droning buzz of its mechanisms—but I suspected it was only trying to soothe itself. I focused on the absurdity of a machine feeling fear and tried not to think about the bolts upstairs giving way just a little more with each time the shadows threw themselves against it.
    Then the pounding stopped so abruptly that my ears rang, and I thought the pounding of my heart would fill the entire room. Ears straining, I heard a few shuffling sounds, some heavy footsteps, a dragging sound. Somehow it was even worse than the pounding.
    â€œWhat are they doing?” Kris’s voice was not even a whisper, only a breath.
    I half expected Oren to shush him, but instead Oren replied in a low voice. “Waiting.”
    â€œWe should stay quiet,” I whispered.
    â€œThey know we’re here.” Oren