Chapter 10 · Rust and Sins

"Get your foot off my chest and start running, or I'll let them eat you first," Lyra spat, her voice rattling with a wet, metallic cough.

Darek didn't move. He stayed pinned under her, the smell of ozone and burnt oil thick in the air. Above them, the canopy of the Lower Ward’s scrap-yards groaned, metal sheets shrieking as something heavy circled overhead.

"Is that all you've got?" Darek grunted, his mechanical arm sparking. The arcane reactor in his shoulder hummed a low, angry warning. "A little blood on your chin and suddenly you're the boss?"

"I'm the one with the gun, scrap-heap," she snapped, though she didn't raise the weapon. Her hand was shaking.

Then the scream hit them. Not human. Not machine. A cyber-hound. The sound tore through the fog like a serrated blade, followed by the rhythmic *clack-clack-clack* of titanium claws hitting rusted steel.

"Down!" Lyra hissed, shoving him hard.

They scrambled into the shadow of a collapsed turbine, the air tasting of salt and old grease. Darek pressed his back against the cold metal, his heart hammering against his ribs. Beside him, Lyra was breathing in jagged hitches, her chest heaving.