Chapter 51 · The Second Door Opens

"Take your hand off the kill switch."

Kade's fingers closed around my wrist before I could pull the lever.

The control deck bucked under our boots. Red light punched through the cracked glass, and the two city maps on the wall slid over each other until the streets became one tangled skeleton. Somewhere below us, metal screamed.

I twisted against him. "Let go."

"You pull that lever, and the core burns."

"That's the plan."

His grip tightened. Heat pressed through my sleeve. His other hand caught my shoulder and shoved me back against the console, hard enough to knock the air out of me.

Kade leaned in, his face inches from mine. "Your plan kills both cities."

"Your core is locking them together."

"Because the Crown forced the second door open."

"And because you're still connected to it."

His jaw flexed. The thin black lines under his skin flashed blue, matching the warning lights crawling across the deck.

"Evelyn," he said, low and sharp, "look at me."

I did. That was the problem. Kade always sounded like he owned the next ten seconds.