Chapter 24 · Because someone else is inside

He leaned closer, one hand braced against the terminal. "Because someone else is inside."

"Olympus?"

"No. Their code is clean. This is dirty. Old. It keeps rewriting itself."

"Can you shut it down?"

"I can cut the feed."

"Do it."

"If I cut it, we lose whatever is trying to surface."

"If you leave it open, it can take control of me."

"I know."

"Jax."

He looked back at me. "I need you to trust me for ten seconds."

"You spent the last hour admitting you lied to me."

"I said I kept things from you. That's not the same thing."

"It's exactly the same thing when I'm the one bleeding for it."

His jaw flexed. "Then shoot me after ten seconds."

"You keep offering me that option."

"Because you keep looking at me like you want it."

The code flashed.

My knees buckled.

A sound tore out of me. Not a scream. Not words. A broken command pushed through a throat that suddenly wasn't mine.

The room vanished.

I stood in a bright white corridor with a rifle in my hands.

No. Not stood. The memory placed me there. My boots moved without permission.