Chapter 6 · Forbidden Frequencies

"Don't move. Not one muscle or I snap your neck before you can scream."

The voice didn't come from the hall. It ripped straight through my skull — a jagged frequency like a rusted blade dragging across my brain.

My boots locked on the marble. One click. Then nothing.

Kael hit me before I could breathe.

His hand slammed my shoulder and drove me back into the shelf. Scrolls shuddered. Dust rained down. His chest pinned my shoulder, hot and solid, ozone and old ink, his arm a bar across me.

"Who's there?" he barked. His voice dropped to a growl. "Show yourself or I burn this whole wing down."

A man stepped out from between the pillars.

No armor. No silk. Just a charcoal tunic, lean, athletic. But his eyes — they weren't looking at me. They were scanning me.

Like I was code.

"Still hiding behind the big scary dog, huh?" he said. Smooth. Smug. Like he knew me. "You always did like the ones who could take a hit for you, didn't you, Sloane?"

My lungs stopped.

That name doesn't belong in this world.