Chapter 36 · You don't get to decide what happens to me

She lifted her head. His eyes held hers in the dim red light.

"You don't get to decide what happens to me," she said.

"Neither does Silas."

"Neither do you."

His hand slid from her back to her wrist. He turned her palm upward, checking the thin cuts across it from the metal shaft.

"Then decide," he said. "Stay with me or go alone."

The tunnel shook again.

Lila stared at his hand around hers. He could have dragged her. Instead, he waited.

That was worse.

"I choose the route that keeps my brother alive," she said.

"Then choose the one that keeps you alive first."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know dead people can't save anyone."

A door at the far end of the platform began to open.

Silas appeared in the gap as a full hologram this time, no longer trapped in the corridor screens. He stood tall and clean in a dark coat, untouched by dust or blood. Behind him, the tunnel walls glowed with moving lines of code.

"There you are," he said. "My favorite failure."

Cain stood, pulling Lila behind him.

Silas looked at their joined hands.