Chapter 49 · Mira Cuts the Line

"Tell me what that lock is doing to my brother." Evelyn drove the stolen permission key against Kade's throat. "And don't give me another half-answer."

Kade's fingers closed around her wrist before the key could break skin. He was still pale from the extraction, one hand pressed against the metal housing in his chest, but his grip hadn't lost its bite.

"Move the key," he said.

"Make me."

His eyes dropped to the blade-thin device between them. "You want your brother alive? Then stop waving the thing that can shut down his heart."

The words hit harder than his hand.

Evelyn shoved him back against the control column. His shoulders struck metal. Their bond pulled tight between them, a hot wire under her ribs, and Kade sucked in a breath at the same time she did.

"You knew," she said. "You knew the system could drag me in, and you let me touch it."

"I knew it might."

"That's not better."

"No. It isn't."

The route map above them jumped. Red lines crawled across the broken display, folding over one another until the shape of the city became a spinning cage.