Chapter 28 · One Exit Left

The words hung over the broken vault door in red letters.

DO NOT LET NYX OUT.

Then the floor dropped out from under me.

I grabbed the edge with both hands, my shoulder slamming hard enough against black stone to make my teeth click. Below me, the core chamber pulsed with white light and a whole lot of absolutely-not-safe-looking code. It looked like somebody had cracked open the world and forgotten to put the lid back on.

Nyx caught my wrist before my fingers slipped.

Her hand was freezing.

“Don’t let go,” I gasped.

“You are the one hanging over a void,” she said. “You are not in a position to give orders.”

“Wow. Great bedside manner.”

Above us, the vault ceiling came apart in chunks. Not stone. Data. Long black strips peeled away and vanished before they hit the floor.

Echo’s voice rolled through the chamber, sweet and flat at the same time.

“Unauthorized memory branch detected. Containment protocol has begun.”

Nyx looked up.

For half a second, her face went blank.

Not calm.