Chapter 13 · Core Collapse

"Mika, look at me!" Cade's voice ripped through the wind, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the sky splitting open, white fire chewing through the clouds, and there wasn't time to explain anything.

"Shut up and hold on," she said, and shoved both hands out in front of her.

The Anchor mark on her wrist tore open like wet paper. Blood didn't drip. It sprayed, a fine red mist catching the light of the blast wave rolling toward them. The shield came up in a dome that didn't stop at her body, didn't stop at his. It kept spreading, past the collapsed core, past the wreckage, out over rooftops neither of them could even see from here.

"That's not possible." Cade's voice cracked on it. "Mika, that's the whole city—"

"I know what it is." She was screaming now, throat raw, arms shaking so hard her elbows locked straight. "So shut up and let me hold it."

The blast hit the shield and didn't punch through. It rolled sideways instead, a wall of heat and noise sliding off skin only she could feel tearing open from the inside. Somewhere below, glass didn't break.