Chapter 27 · Untitled Chapter

"Iris!" Vera's scream came half a second before the ceiling caved in.

Concrete slabs crashed onto the floor. Crystal bugs poured through the gap—hundreds of them, clicking and snapping as they crawled over one another in a wave of black glass bodies.

Vera vanished beneath them.

"No!"

I fired both arms into the swarm. Blue-white rounds punched through shells and sent razor shards spinning across the chamber. Bugs burst apart. More climbed over the corpses.

My chest locked up.

Alpha screamed inside my skull—not sound, but red icons, warning bars, and one command flashing over everything else.

PROTECT VERA CHEN.

"Yeah," I gasped. "I'm working on it."

Something clamped around my ankle.

I looked down. Six needle legs hooked into my boot. The bug's mouth split wide enough to bite through bone.

My right arm snapped back and crushed it.

The smell hit next. Burned sugar. Wet metal. Blood.

Above us, the giant heart shoved through the broken roof. Metal ribs scraped concrete as it climbed, dragging cables and dead bugs behind it. Every screen in the underground level still showed the same message.

ARRIVAL CONFIRMED.

Mom's face flickered inside the heart's open core. Half her skin remained.