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Nat nodded.

“Are we across the Veil?” Bobby wanted to know. He pulled up his phone. “My tech is still working.”

“It’s a merge like I’ve never seen,” Nat admitted. “I alerted the Marshal.”

Usually the neighborhood around a merge lived in a smokey haze almost like a warning, but everything here was clear for miles around. Even the strange half pulsing heart in the sky over the house.

I headed for the back door, determined to find Jude before more chaos descended, whether that meant the Marshal, the SED, or even a Shepherd.

“Angel,” Wade protested.

Victor groaned but had my back. “This better not be another death curse.”

“No promises,” I told him as we entered through the back door and into a large kitchen filled with stainless steel appliances and marble countertops. High-end everything, but also strangely warped. The ceiling shimmered a pale gray-purple, rippling like heat off pavement, and a few cabinets stood open, darkness gaping from within rather than dishes.

“Should we suit up first?” Bobby asked, hesitating to follow.

The dining area beyond looked normal, untouched by the warping walls that spanned the living room beyond. The stairway upward was a funhouse mess of winding steps.

I recalled Jude saying he’d witnessed his grandmother’s ghost here. Had she known about the splice? Perhaps it was how she’d been able to linger and watch Ivan until Jude found his way to his kid brother.

Near where the stairs met the ceiling of the first floor, darkness swirled, as though a portal existed. Was this what Jude had seen when we’d entered Cassidy’s building a few weeks ago?

I headed up, taking the stairs two at a time despite the protests behind me, gripping the railing tight as the darkness rose around me.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the Marshal?” Wade asked.

A faint glowing red strand led me upward, tied to my ring. I’d only caught glimpses of it before. Something about this warped madhouse gave it new life. Or maybe it was Nox fueling the glow as we were both bound to Jude.

The stairs twirled and rose for what felt like ages before I reached the second floor. I sucked in air as the hall stretched before me. It looked normal enough, a handful of rooms, rather than the long array of nightmare doors we’d found in Erlik’s pantry.

Motes danced in the air, thick enough to make it feel like I was moving through a ball pit. Strange, they bumped into me, seemed to flinch, then floated away. I took a step toward a far room the red strand snaked into, but a firm hand grabbed the back of my shirt, holding me back.

“Wait,” Victor murmured. “Let me go first.”

“Jude’s in there.”

“Maybe.” Victor conceded. He was the only one who’d followed me up. “But I’m harder to kill than you.”

“You should have stayed outside.”

“I sent everyone else out,” Victor agreed without letting me win. “If it’s a spell, we’ll know soon, right?” Victor stepped past me, his body angled to shield mine, and pushed the door open.

The motes bounced and floated around us, heavy as we shoved through them and into the room. I shook my head, trying to clear my vision, or at least make sense of what I was seeing.

First it was a library. A small space with shelves, a window, and an armchair. Then it was a teen’s bedroom. A narrow bed, a desk, a dresser, and an open window. Both shimmered back and forth, as if the room couldn’t decide which side would win.

And if the transition from past to present wasn’t unusual enough, a slice of purple etched up the wall below the window, sizzling with electricity, or magic. A scent of burning ozone filled the room. The tear had been stitched shut, but it seemed to be pulling at the strands, small trickles of the beyond dripping through.

And there was no Jude.

The red strand stopped at the doorway.

Victor glanced at me; eyes wide. “If this is what Holt sees all the time, he can keep it.” He blinked and shook his head, as if finding it hard to focus. “Is that a tear?”

“A scar,” I agreed. “Stitched shut, but fraying.”

Had Jude done that? Was that why he wasn’t here? The stitching looked old, fraying, from time, or from some sort of power I didn’t understand?