Chapter 26 · She's Still Breathing

The signal cuts out.

I'm staring at my wrist like it's going to suddenly make sense. The coordinates are still there. Six blocks east. Old transit tunnel.

But Lia's right here. In Kade's arms. Pale. Not breathing right.

"That's impossible," Darian says.

I look up at him. "You just told me I'm a backup brain for my sister. Don't talk to me about impossible."

Juno's backing toward the door. Her hand's on her med kit but her eyes are on Darian's security team. "Mara. We need to go. Now."

"She sent coordinates," I say. My voice sounds far away. "Lia sent me coordinates."

Kade shifts his grip on Lia. His knuckles are white. "Mara. Look at her."

I do. Lia's chest is moving. Barely. Her eyelids are twitching like she's dreaming something bad.

"That's her," Kade says. "That's your sister."

"Then who the hell just pinged my wrist?"

Darian steps closer. Too close. "Miss Vale. The neural load is fragmenting her cognition. She's hallucinating. Projecting. The signal you received is a ghost echo from the infrastructure grid. It happens when a host is failing."

"Ghost echo," I repeat.

"Yes."

"With GPS coordinates and a voice file."

He doesn't answer that.