Chapter 27 · Sync Limit

"Get out of my head, Echo. Now!"

I slammed my fist against the bulkhead, the metal groaning under the force of my reinforced knuckles. My vision was fracturing. One second I was seeing the sterile, white-tiled corridor of the sublevel, and the next, a shimmering, glitchy overlay of a city with no walls—just endless, floating spires and golden light that didn't hurt to look at.

"I'm not in your head, Vera. We're just... overlapping," Echo’s voice echoed, not in my ears, but vibrating directly against my skull. It sounded too close, like he was whispering right against my neck.

"Overlapping my ass!" I gasped, sliding down the wall. My left arm jerked violently, lifting my hand to touch my own cheek. I wasn't moving it. He was. "Stop. Touching. Me."

"You're shaking," he noted. I could feel his curiosity—a cold, digital hum that started at the base of my spine and radiated outward. "Your pulse is 140. Your cortisol levels are spiking. If you don't let me stabilize the sync, your neural lace is going to fry. Do you want to be a vegetable? Because that's how you become a vegetable.