Chapter 33 · The Mall Picks Us

Vex is standing at my front doors with a key made of light, and I can feel her trying to unlock me from the outside.

Not the building. Me.

The royal grid is awake under the foundation, humming through every wire I've got, and she's got her hand pressed flat to the glass like she's about to peel the whole place open. I can see the contract marks crawling up her wrist, burning white-hot. She's feeding the key with everything she's got left. One more push and she'll have access to the lockmark. To the core. To me.

I don't have a body to shake, but if I did, my hands would be vibrating.

"Noah." Ivy's voice cuts through the noise in my head. She's still standing in the atrium, blood dripping from her palm where she carved the debt mark off. Her face is pale but her eyes are locked on me—on the core node glowing in the center of the floor. "What do we do?"

"I don't know." I mean it. The royal grid wasn't supposed to wake up. Vex wasn't supposed to have a bypass key.