Chapter 26 · Forbidden Kiss

"Stay still or I'll snap your wrist, Kael." Vera's voice was a jagged blade against my ear. She had me pinned against the cold alloy wall of the corridor, her forearm crushing my windpipe just enough to make every breath a fight.

"You're shaking," I wheezed, staring into those steel-gray eyes. "Does the thought of helping a convict make you nervous, or is it just the scanners?"

"Shut up." She didn't move her arm, but her grip tightened.

I could smell her—ozone and something sharp, like sterile rain. We were seconds away from the Sector Zero vault, and the bio-scanners were pinging every ten seconds. If they caught two unregistered heartbeats in this corridor, the ceiling would open up and rain plasma fire on both of us.

"We don't have time for the tough-girl act," I spat, trying to shift my weight. "You know the protocol. If we don't sync our minds now, the vault won't even recognize you as an admin. You'll just be another glitch for the system to delete."

Vera's gaze flickered. For a second, the mask of the Enforcer cracked. "I'm not a glitch."

"Then prove it," I challenged. "Touch me. Sync.