Chapter 40 · Forced Sync

"Don't touch the neural crown." Kane slapped Selena's hand away. "Not unless you're ready to watch this whole room burn."

Selena caught his wrist before he could pull back. Her grip was hard, steady, and warm against his skin. The pistol in her other hand pressed into the center of his chest.

"You don't get to set terms," she said. "You're strapped into my machine, inside my fortress, with a kill switch under my thumb."

"Then why are you still asking me to sync?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I stopped asking."

She twisted his arm behind his back and forced him down against the metal chair. The restraints snapped shut over his wrists. Kane's shoulder hit the frame hard enough to send a sharp line of pain down his arm.

"Damn it, Selena."

"Save your breath. You'll need it."

The neural crown hung above him, a ring of black contacts and thin silver needles. He had seen it once before. In his first life, the machine had cooked three pilots from the inside out. Selena had called it a synchronization failure. Victor had called it acceptable loss.

Kane remembered the truth.

The crown wasn't broken.

Someone had changed the safety limits.