Chapter 32 · Light Up Top

"Move, Jace!" Vera slammed her shoulder into my side as the tunnel roof dropped behind us.

Stone crashed across the path we had taken. Dust punched into my throat. I caught Vera by the back of her jacket before she went down, then dragged her under the crooked support beam hanging over the tracks.

"You said the collapse was behind us," she snapped.

"I said it was getting worse. Different thing."

"That is not better!"

Another crack split the tunnel.

Vera shoved away from me and raised her rifle toward the darkness ahead. The emergency lamps flashed red across her face. Her finger settled beside the trigger, steady now. Mine would not have been, if I had fingers shaped for rifles instead of hooked claws.

"Hector went this way," she said. "We follow him."

I pointed at the ceiling. A slab of concrete trembled above us.

"We follow the cave-in, you mean?"

"He has the core."

"And you have a death wish."

"I have a debt."

She stepped closer, close enough that the barrel brushed my chest.

"If Vane reaches the lift, he gets to the upper farms," she said.