Chapter 39 · Shattered Truths

"Get your hand off me, Jax."

His fingers locked around my wrist anyway.

The neural void buckled under my feet. Black glass cracked in every direction, and the face in front of me kept changing—Victor, a terrified stranger, Victor again. Behind him stood six people with blood on their clothes.

My blood.

"I'm pulling you out," Jax said.

"You don't get to pull anything."

"Kaelen, look at me."

"I said let go!"

I twisted hard. His grip tightened. Heat spread from his palm into my arm, sharp and real enough to hurt. That was the problem. The pain felt real. His voice felt real. The memories felt real too.

The woman on the floor stared up at me with a broken jaw. A man beside her tried to crawl away. I remembered the clean line of my knife. The way I had stepped over his hand.

I remembered all of it.

"You did this," Victor said from somewhere behind Jax. "You wanted the upgrade. You begged for it."

"Shut up."

"You signed every order."

"Shut up!"

Jax pulled me closer. His shoulder hit mine, solid and warm, while the void peeled apart around us.

"Don't listen to him," he said.