Chapter 15 · Climb Or Die

"Move. Now." Reign's hand clamped around my wrist and yanked me off the concrete before the floor finished cracking under me.

"I'm moving!" I snapped. "You're gonna rip my arm off!"

"Good. Then you'll be lighter." His fingers didn't let go. Hot. Too tight. That stupid shackle mark on my wrist flared the second he touched me and I hissed.

The whole under-level was coming down. Dust choking my throat, rebar screaming, that corp kill-squad's boots thundering right above us. They had drones. They had rifles. We had a hole in the ground and nowhere to go except up.

"Reign, we can't go up!" I coughed, trying to pull free. "That's where they are!"

"And down is death. So up." He dragged me against his chest, one arm locked around my waist. His rig was overheating, I could feel it through his shirt. Burning up. "You wanna live, Level Zero? You climb."

"Don't call me that when you're using me as a shield!"

"I'm not using you as a shield. You're too small to block anything." He looked down at me, eyes lit up that nasty AI blue. "I'm using you as a key."

Asshole.