Page 52 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
Carolina’s skin prickled. “Redactor,” she
whispered, the word tasting like bitten foil.
The woman tipped her head as if listening to
Carolina’s fear. Then she smiled, slow and wrong.
“Run,” Henry said.
They burst into rain. The freight horn bellowed
a delayed second, thunder rolled too soon, and the
world briefly failed to agree with itself. Behind
them, the Redactor’s feet hit metal treads in a
rhythm so ordinary it felt obscene.
Carolina shoved the thumb drive into her bra
while she ran. “Left—Rua da Cozinha!”
Henry cut left. The alley dead-ended in a
corrugated gate. He put both hands on the steel,
braced to scale. The gate didn’t move. He leapt, got
fingers over the top, hauled himself up, reached
back, pulled Carolina after him. She landed,
breathed once like a diver surfacing.
The Redactor reached the gate and did not
climb. She pressed a mirrored palm to the steel and
spoke backward softly. The corrugations sang a
subsonic note. Carolina felt it in her teeth. The note
looked for their bones.
Sera would have sung, Henry thought—an
absurd, useless thought in the rain.
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