Chapter 16 · Take My Blood Instead

"I'll do it."

Kane's hand locked around my wrist before I got two steps toward the monitor. His grip was cold, tight, and shaking.

"No."

"He's my brother."

"He's bait." Kane's voice scraped out low and wrong, like something else was trying to use his throat. "Vale doesn't want Eli. He wants you walking into that lab so he can crack you open and see what makes the mark work."

I twisted, but his fingers didn't budge. "Then let him. Eli gets out, you get your files back, and Vale gets whatever the hell he thinks is in my blood. Everyone wins."

"Everyone dies." Kane pulled me back a step, and I felt the heat rolling off him in waves. His skin was too warm, his pupils blown too wide. "You go in there, he straps you down, drains you dry, and dumps Eli in the river anyway because there's no deal. There's just a man who wants to own the thing under this city, and you're the key he's been looking for since your mother died."

I stopped pulling. "What?"

Kane let go. His hand dropped like it'd been burned.

"Your mother wasn't just a journalist, Evie.