Chapter 20 · Don't Use His Voice

"Sila, get away from him. Now." The voice came through the cracked speaker in Kael's neck port, soft and familiar enough to stop her with one boot half-raised.

Kael grabbed her wrist before she could step back. His fingers locked around her pulse.

"Don't listen," he said.

The speaker clicked.

"Sila? It's me."

Her breath caught.

Kael felt the change in her before he saw it. Her wrist went still in his hand. Her shoulders pulled tight. The pistol hanging from her other hand lowered by an inch.

"Rook?" she whispered.

The voice answered with a tired little laugh.

"You still say my name like you're angry at it."

Kael shoved her behind him and faced the dead console bolted to the wall. Its screen had been black for ten minutes. Now thin blue lines crawled across it, one after another, like something was writing from the other side.

"That isn't your brother," he said.

"You don't know my brother."

"I know dead men don't answer encrypted emergency channels."

"You said the channel was dead."

"It was."

The speaker hissed.

"She always does that," Rook said. "Makes a claim, then changes the rules when she gets scared.