Chapter 31 · Echoes of the Dark

"Get your hands off me, Nora!"

I didn't let go. Instead, I slammed Sera against the damp stone wall of the corridor, my fingers digging into her shoulders. The air between us was thick with the smell of ozone and old rot, and my own breath was coming in jagged hitches.

"Shut up and listen," I hissed, leaning in until my forehead almost touched hers. "We are in the middle of a dead zone. If you keep shouting, every shadow-hound in this sector will be on us in ten seconds. Do you want to be dinner?"

Sera sneered, though her chest was heaving against mine. She didn't pull away. She never did. She just looked at me with that infuriating, knowing glint in her eyes, the kind that told me she knew exactly how much I was shaking.

"You're the great Golden Girl of Solis," she mocked, her voice a low, dangerous vibrate. "Why are you trembling? Scared the dark is finally catching up to you?"

I tightened my grip, my nails piercing through the fabric of her jacket. "I'm not scared. I'm pissed. Now, give me the key or I'll make sure you can't walk for a week.