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The Iron Trial Holly Black 19980K 2023-09-01

Call and Tamara stayed dead silent as they passed by a roo inside For aupright and others leaning against the walls, but then he realized two things -- one, that their eyes were all closed, which would have been very strange for mannequins, and two, that their chests rose and fell as they breathed

Call froze, terrified What was he looking at? What were they?

Taestured toward the room and saw the look of horror cross her face as she followed his gesture Her hand flew to herfor Call to do the same

"Chaos-ridden," she whispered to hi

Call wasn’t sure how she could tell without seeing their eyes, but decided he didn’t want to know badly enough to ask He was already so freaked out that he felt as though anytohe needed wasinformation

If the Chaos-ridden were here, it meant this had to be some outpost of the Enemy All those stories that Call had heard, the ones that had seeo, the ones he hadn’t worried about, now flooded his head

The Enemy had taken Aaron Because Aaron was a Makar They’d been idiots to let hiisterium alone Of course the Enemy would have found out about hi to kill Aaron, if he hadn’t already Call’s led to concentrate on their surroundings through his panic

The corridor’s ceiling was getting higher as theythe walls, the blackened wood becae wallpaper above it -- a pattern of vines that, if he looked carefully at, Call swore he could see insectsbut being quiet as he kept going

They passed several closed rooms before Havoc went up to a set of double doors and whined, then turned back to Call and Tamara expectantly

"Shhh," Call told hi once at the floor

The doors were huge, made of a dark, solid wood that bore a pattern of scorch marks, as if they had been licked by fire Tamara put her hand on the knob, turned it, and peeked inside Then she eased it closed and spun back to Call ide eyes He didn’t think he’d ever seen her look so stunned, even by the Chaos-ridden

"Aaron," she whispered, but she didn’t look elated like he would have expected, didn’t look happy at all She looked like she was going to throw up

Call pushed past her to look

"Call --" Taly "Don’t -- there’s so in, his eye pressed to the crack in the door