Chapter 21 · You're hurting me

She drove her heel down on his boot. Kael grunted, but he didn't release her. He shifted his hold, pinning both her arms against her sides without crushing them.

Her back pressed to his chest. His breath brushed the side of her neck. He felt her pulse hammering beneath the skin.

"You're hurting me," she said.

He loosened his grip at once. "I'm not."

"Your hand is on my ribs."

"Because you keep trying to shoot the wall."

"Move it."

"If I move it, you run."

"Maybe I should."

"Then tell me where."

She stopped fighting.

The silence lasted less than a second, but it hit him harder than her elbow.

Rook's voice dropped to a whisper.

"Sil, he won't let you go because he knows what you are."

Sila's breath shook. "What am I?"

"A key."

Kael stared at the screen.

The system had not used that word before. Not in any of the corrupted messages. Not in the fractured command strings that had been burning through his head since the gold surge.

A key to what?

He pushed the question down and reached for the console.

Sila caught his hand. "Don't erase him."

Her fingers closed around his.