Chapter 12 | Part 6

The second door stood ajar at the end of the upstairs corridor. Lamp smoke drifted through the gap.

Maris knew before she reached it.

Each step made her teeth ache. Behind her eyes the pressure held one unbroken pitch.

She stopped six paces away.

She braced her palm against the wall. A raised nail pressed into the old scar; she moved her hand away from it.

Voices came from the room. She could separate them from the noise in her head if she kept still.

She took two more steps.

The pressure increased.

She stopped again, short of the threshold.

Something beyond the door pulsed.

She flinched, pressing her lips together until the nausea subsided.

Whatever was making that noise was in the room. She had reached it.

The speakers had gone quiet.

A floorboard creaked just inside the door.

The hand flashed across the doorway. Maris blinked, and there was only wood.

She put her hand against the door.

“Please let there be a chair,” she whispered.

She pushed. The door met resistance, then a man moved aside and she saw the light on the table.

End of Chapter 12.6 —> 13.1: The One Who Walks Free: The Cage