Chapter 47 · Kade's Old Lock

“Take your hand off the console.” Evelyn drove the edge of her knife under Kade’s jaw. “Now.”

Kade didn’t move. His palm stayed pressed to the black glass panel, fingers spread over the Crown seal. Blue lines crawled beneath his skin, matching the pulse in his wrist.

“Evelyn,” he said, low and steady, “if you pull that blade across my throat, the lock drops us into the rift.”

“Then stop making me choose between your neck and my brother.”

“You don’t know what this system does.”

“I know it opened three doors for you and tried to crush my lungs when I touched the fourth.” She pushed the knife harder. “That’s enough of a tutorial.”

The old control room shuddered around them. Dust fell from the ceiling. Somewhere behind the walls, metal groaned like the building had teeth.

Kade finally turned his head. The blade scraped against his skin. His eyes found hers, dark and sharp, with a thin ring of silver light around the pupils.

“You think I’m lying.”

“I think you’ve been lying since the first time you put a gun against my ribs.”

“I didn’t have a gun.”

“You had a Crown pulse-rifle.”

“Still don’t have one.”