Chapter 10 · The Rust City

"Hold still, you idiot, or I'm going to sew your mouth shut instead of your side!"

Lila jammed the needle through the thick, synthetic skin of Cain’s flank. He didn't flinch. He didn't even breathe. He just stared at her with those gold-ringed eyes, looking less like a man and more like a statue carved from something dangerous and expensive.

"You're shaking," he said. His voice was a low grate, like metal sliding over stone.

"I'm not shaking, I'm caffeinated," Lila snapped, though her fingers were trembling violently. She tightened the stitch, pulling the jagged wound closed. "And stop looking at me like I'm the one who's broken. You're the one leaking black fluid all over my favorite rug."

They were holed up in a crawlspace beneath a collapsed refinery in the Rust City. Around them, the air tasted of ozone and old copper. Outside, the shrieks of scavenger drones echoed through the metal canyons, searching for the anomaly that had just woken up in the wasteland.

Cain shifted, his massive frame taking up nearly every inch of the narrow space. The movement brought him closer, his chest inches from hers. Lila could feel the heat radiating off him—