Chapter 29 · Wrong Body, Same Death

"Get away from him!" Varen drew his sword and shoved the point under Kael's jaw.

The voice that came out of Kael's throat was mine.

I froze.

My hand—Kael's hand—lifted on its own. Two fingers closed around Varen's blade and pushed it aside.

"Don't touch him," I said.

Varen stared at me. "Commander?"

Across the cracked stone floor, my body lay curled beside the broken lock core. My hair covered my face. One of my hands twitched against the stones.

Kael's eyes opened inside my body.

He sucked in a sharp breath. "Seraph?"

Hearing my name in my own voice nearly broke my knees.

"I'm here," I said.

The sound was wrong. Deep. Cold. Kael's voice. Kael's mouth shaping my words.

Varen swung his sword back toward me. "What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything. The lock did."

"The lock is dead."

"No, it isn't." I pointed at the black metal ring buried in the crack. My arm moved too fast, too smoothly. "It traded us."

Varen's face drained of color. "Traded what?"

Kael tried to sit up. My body shook under him, too weak to obey. He pressed one palm to the floor, then collapsed again.