Chapter 32 · The Second Heart

I woke up to the sound of my own heartbeat.

Except it wasn't just mine.

The rhythm pulsed through the floor, through the walls, through the air itself. Every beat echoed back at me from somewhere deeper than sound should go. I tried to move and pain lit up my chest like someone had poured gasoline on the wound and set it on fire.

"Don't." Kade's voice. Close.

I forced my eyes open. The white light was gone. We were still in the observation room, but something had changed. The screens on the wall had all gone dark except for one. A single pulse line, green and steady, moving across the monitor in perfect rhythm.

My heartbeat.

No. Our heartbeat.

"What did you do?" Elara's voice cracked. She was pressed against the far wall, staring at me like I'd just crawled out of a grave. "Mara, what the hell did you do?"

I tried to sit up. Kade's hand on my shoulder stopped me. His chest was a mess of blood and torn fabric, but his eyes were clear. Human. The flat kill-code stare was gone.

"You broke it," he said. His voice was rough, like he'd been screaming.