Chapter 27 · Mirror Match

"Don't listen to her. She's buying time." Jax's voice crackled in my earpiece, thin and rough from blood loss.

The clone's blade pressed against mine hard enough to shove my wrist toward the train floor. Her face sat inches from mine. Same black eyes. Same cut across the left eyebrow. Even the small twitch beside her mouth matched mine when I was trying not to panic.

"You always talk when you're scared," she said.

I drove my knee into her ribs.

She turned with it.

Not away. With it.

Her elbow slammed into my shoulder, and my grip broke. The knife spun under the seats.

"See?" she whispered. "You still lead with the knee when you want someone looking at your hands."

"Shut up."

"You told me that in the first room."

She caught my wrist and twisted. Pain snapped up my arm. My back hit the side of a seat, and the train jolted beneath us. Jax swore from somewhere behind me.

"Kaelen," he said, "move left. Three steps."

"You think I can't see her?"

"I think you can't see the gun under her coat."

The clone smiled.

That was the problem.