Chapter 21 · The Furnace Lies

"Don't touch him!" Lena's gun snapped up as Milo dragged the blade across the glowing band wrapped around Bram's wrists.

The cut stopped a hair above the skin.

Bram looked up from the furnace chair. His face was gray with soot, his mouth split at one corner, but his eyes were clear enough to hurt.

"Milo," he rasped. "Don't listen to it."

The thing behind his voice laughed.

Not Bram's laugh. Too deep. Too smooth. It rolled through the buried furnace room and shook dust from the ceiling bolts.

Milo tightened his grip on the cutter. "You heard that, right?"

"I heard it." Lena stepped between him and the chair, one hand locked around the brass seal at her throat. Her coat brushed his chest. Heat pushed off her skin, sharp against the furnace air. "Put the blade down."

"You first."

Her eyes cut to the knife. "You want to argue while that thing has Bram tied to a war-core?"

"I want to know why your family seal opened the door."

"You can interrogate me after we get out alive."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting while your mentor is being used as a mouthpiece.