Chapter 5

"Can't. The Glitch is spiking," he muttered, his grip tightening. I could feel the heat of his breath on my neck, a sharp contrast to the freezing rain starting to mist around us. "If I don't stabilize your sync rate, you're going to fry your own frontal lobe in about thirty seconds. You want to be a vegetable? Because that's the current trajectory."

I glared at the brick wall, my vision flickering with red warning glyphs. *CRITICAL SYNC ERROR*. *MEMORY LEAK DETECTED*.

"I can handle it," I lied. My knees were shaking. The Glitch protocol wasn't just a power-up; it was a parasite. It was eating through my firewall, and Jaxon—the man who had spent the last three hours trying to find a way to sell me back to the corp—was the only one with the master keys to keep me from crashing.

"You're a terrible liar, Kael," he whispered. He shifted his weight, pressing closer. I could feel the outline of his tactical gear, the hard line of his thigh against mine. The proximity was suffocating, a dizzying mix of danger and something that felt far too much like electricity. "Just breathe. Let me in."

"I don't trust you," I snapped, though my voice lacked its usual bite.

"Good. Trust is for people who aren't being hunted by a corporate hit-squad. Now shut up and let the sync finish."

He pushed the cable deeper. I gasped, my head snapping back against his shoulder. Suddenly, the world shifted. It wasn't just my vision anymore. I could see what he saw—a ghosted overlay of the alleyway, thermal signatures of three operatives closing in from the north sector, and a scrolling feed of encrypted data streaming from his brain to mine.

It was invasive. It was filthy. It felt like he was walking through my mind with muddy boots, stepping over memories I didn't even know I had.

"Stop," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Stop looking at that."

"Looking at what?" Jaxon's voice sounded different inside the link—deeper, echoing. "Your childhood? Your first kill? Or the fact that you're terrified of me?"

"I'm not terrified of you," I snarled, finally finding enough leverage to elbow him in the ribs.

He didn't budge. He just laughed, a low, dark sound that vibrated through my entire ribcage. "Right. That's why your heart rate is hitting one hundred and forty. You're either about to kill me or you're enjoying this. Which one is it, Kael?"

"I'm going to rip your throat out," I promised.

"Do it after we get out of here. Until then, you're my puppet." He yanked the cable slightly, and my arm moved involuntarily, lifting my weapon into a perfect firing position. "See? Perfect synchronization. I provide the targeting data, you provide the muscle. We're a regular little team."

"I hate you," I muttered, even as my finger tightened on the trigger, guided by his invisible hand.

"The feeling is mutual," he replied, but he didn't pull away. He stayed right there, his body shielding mine, his warmth the only thing keeping the creeping cold of the Glitch from freezing my nerves.

I could feel his pulse through the link—steady, arrogant, and fast. He was lying to me. I could tell by the way the data flickered when he mentioned the extraction point. He wasn't taking me to safety. He was taking me somewhere else.

"Where are we actually going?" I asked, my voice small.

"Somewhere the corp can't find you," he said. "Or somewhere I can get a better price for you. Depends on how much you annoy me in the next ten minutes."

I shifted, trying to create space, but he just tightened his hold, his hand sliding from my wrist to the small of my back, pinning me firmly. "Stop squirming. You're leaking signal. If those hounds pick up your signature, we're both dead."

"Then let go!"

"No," he whispered, his lips almost touching my ear. "I like having you where I can see you."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch him. But as the first corporate drone rounded the corner of the alley, the Glitch flared again. A wave of agony ripped through my skull—a jagged, white-hot spike of noise. I collapsed, my legs giving out, but Jaxon caught me, dragging me back into the shadows of a recessed doorway.

"Hold on," he commanded, his voice sharp. "I'm overriding the surge."

He didn't just use the cable this time. He grabbed my face with his free hand, his fingers cold against my skin, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were scanning mine, looking for the flicker of the protocol. For a second, the mask of the arrogant agent slipped. He looked... worried.

"Kael, look at me. Stay with me," he ordered.

"It hurts," I gasped, the words barely escaping. The Glitch was demanding payment. That was the rule: power for memory. Every time he stabilized me, every time I used the system to survive, a piece of me vanished.

"Just a little more," he whispered, his thumb brushing my cheekbone. The gesture was almost tender, which made it a thousand times more dangerous. "I've got you. Just hold on."

I closed my eyes, leaning into him despite everything. The tension between us was a live wire, sparking with every breath. I hated that I needed him. I hated that the only person who could save my life was the man who viewed me as a paycheck.

Then, the signal snapped.

It wasn't a fade; it was a crash. The connection between our minds severed with a violent, psychic pop. The silence that followed was worse than the noise. I felt a void open up in my mind, a sudden, gaping hole where something important had been.

I blinked, looking up at Jaxon. He was staring at me, his expression unreadable.

"Did it work?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "The surge is gone. But you look... empty."

I frowned, trying to reach for a thought, a name, a detail. I searched for the one thing that defined me, the core of who I was. But there was nothing. Just a smooth, sterile blank space.

"Jaxon," I whispered. "What's my name?"

He froze. The silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating. He didn't answer immediately. He just looked at me, his grip on my arm tightening as if he were afraid I would vanish right there in the rain.

"You're joking," he said, his voice devoid of humor. "Tell me you're joking."

"I... I don't know," I said, panic rising in my chest. "I can't remember it. I can't remember my own name."

Jaxon stepped back, his eyes widening. He looked at the neural port in my neck, then back at my face. "The Glitch... it didn't just take a memory. It took your identity."

Before I could respond, a red laser dot appeared on Jaxon's chest, centering perfectly over his heart.

"Down!" he yelled, slamming me into the ground just as a high-caliber round shattered the brickwork where my head had been a second before.