Chapter 8 · The Blood Deal

"Don't even breathe," Maya hissed, the cold barrel of her pulse-pistol digging right into the soft skin under my jaw. "One twitch and I paint this wall with your brains."

I didn't move. I couldn't. Not because of the gun, but because my heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird, and for the first time, I could feel hers too. It was a frantic, jagged rhythm, echoing in the back of my skull.

*She's terrified,* Nyx’s voice purred in my mind, sounding far too amused. *Her pulse is spiking. She’s not as confident as that shaky trigger finger suggests. Want me to fry her neural link? Just a little zap to make her drop the toy.*

"Shut up," I muttered.

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Maya snapped, shoving me harder against the rusted plating of the wall. "You’re alone in this sector, Kael. Or you were, until you decided to play ghost. Who’s in your head?"

I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "You know me, Maya. You know I don't talk to myself. Unless it's to tell myself how much I hate your face."

"Still a smartass even when you're dead," she spat.