Chapter 18 · Rachel Is Still Breathing

"Eli Cross. Step away from the target."

Rachel's voice cuts through the static before I can pull Maya off the ground. I spin. She's ten feet back, rifle up, helmet visor glowing pale green in the dark. Two more council soldiers flank her, lights clipped to their vests like dying stars.

"She's my sister," I say.

"Step away," Rachel says again. Her rifle doesn't waver. "Or I put you both down."

Maya's hand tightens on my wrist. Her pulse is fast and wrong, too much pressure in the pauses. The black veins are crawling past her elbow now, spreading like cracks in glass.

I don't move. The light in my chest is humming, ready to crack my ribs open if I let it. My fingers are still glowing green from the vial Maya shoved into my hand thirty seconds ago.

"You know what they did," I say. "She told you. The council made this place."

Rachel's jaw tightens behind the visor. For a second I think she's gonna pull the trigger anyway. Then she lowers the rifle an inch. Just one.

"I know," she says.

The soldiers next to her shift. One of them mutters something into his comm.