Chapter 11 · One Body, Two Minds

Celine woke up choking on someone else's scream.

Her hands clawed at the hospital blanket. Her throat locked. No air came in, and the scream kept tearing out anyway, raw and ugly and far too loud inside her skull.

Stop. Stop. Stop.

The command flashed across her vision in clean white text.

VOICE CONTROL: DISABLED.

Celine tried again. She pushed the order through the interface the way she had pushed commands through a boardroom full of terrified executives.

Cut motor output. Mute vocal response. Sever pain feedback.

Nothing happened.

Her back arched off the bed. The heart monitor beside her shrieked faster. Her fingers dug into the sheets while another memory slammed into her head.

Black water. A metal table. A red emergency light. Mira's face behind the glass.

No. Not a memory.

Mira was still here.

"Get out of me!" Celine shouted.

The voice sounded like Celine's. The words belonged to Mira.

A laugh answered from somewhere behind her eyes. It was small and breathless and completely wrong inside her skull.

"Funny," Mira said. "That's what I used to say."

Celine thrashed against the restraints. Someone had tied both wrists to the bed frame.