Chapter 33 · The Vow That Bites Back

"You're going to kill him." I slammed my hand on the console, blood already dripping from the cut across my palm. "If I don't rewrite this thing right now, you're going to kill him."

Nora didn't look up from the grid map. Her fingers flew across the cracked screen, rerouting what was left of the power nodes. "Then write faster. Because Marcus just blew the eastern tunnel, and Kane's down there alone."

The core room shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. Somewhere below us, metal screamed, and I knew that sound. I'd heard it in the chapel, in the vault, every time Kane's beast clawed closer to the surface.

"How much blood?" I asked.

"Enough to make it hurt." Nora finally looked at me. Her scrubs were torn, her face pale. "The grid needs a Voss signature to reboot. You're married to him now. That makes you close enough."

"Close enough to what?"

"Close enough to burn."

I dragged my bleeding palm across the interface. The screen flared white, then gold, then that sick black-gold I'd seen in Kane's eyes when the beast took over.