Chapter 14 · Live Wire Trap

"Hold the line, Darek! If that timer hits zero, we're both just expensive confetti!"

Lyra’s voice cracked over the roar of the machinery. She was pinned against the rusted catwalk, her boots sliding on a layer of iridescent oil. Below us, the Warden—a ten-foot slab of steam-driven iron and hate—was swinging a piston-hammer that could flatten a carriage.

I didn't look up. I couldn't. My mechanical arm was buried deep in the guts of the core bomb, fingers dancing through a nightmare of sparking wires and leaking coolant. The reactor in my chest hummed a warning, a low vibration that made my teeth ache.

"I'm working on it!"

*CRASH.*

The catwalk shuddered. The Warden had missed Lyra by an inch, the hammer smashing through the steel grating. Metal shrieked. I felt the floor tilt, my boots slipping. I lunged forward, slamming my shoulder against the bomb's casing to keep from sliding into the abyss.

"You're not working on it, you're staring at it!"

Lyra leaped. She was a blur of black leather and chrome, landing on the Warden’s shoulder with a guttural snarl. She jammed her combat blade into a joint, but the machine didn't even flinch.