Chapter 15 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 15: The Debt Remembers

"Put the gun down."

Kael's voice came flat and cold. He stood three meters back, one hand raised like he expected me to listen, the other resting on his belt near the disruptor clipped there.

I didn't lower the weapon. My hands were still shaking from whatever the core had done to me. My brother's face was still burning behind my eyes—small, scared, holding my hand in a hospital bed I couldn't remember. The system had showed me that. Showed me I'd erased it. Showed me I'd left him behind.

"You heard what it said," I told him. My voice cracked halfway through. "I sold him. I erased the memory and I sold him."

"You don't know that."

"I know I forgot." I pressed the muzzle harder against my own ribs, right where the chip sat under my skin. "I know I took the chip and ran. That's enough."

Kael moved. Not toward me. Sideways, putting himself between me and the sealed door behind him. The one we'd been trying to crack for the last two hours while the sublevel shook itself apart.

"Raina," he said. "Look at me."

"I am."

"No. You're looking at the exit.