Chapter 17 · The Dead Zone

"Get your hand off me, Vala. Now."

Her fingers tightened around my wrist instead.

The broken transit tunnel shook as another pulse hit the walls. Dust dropped from the ceiling. Somewhere behind us, drones screamed through the dark, their searchlights cutting across the smoke.

Vala shoved me against a dead service panel. Her forearm pressed across my chest, hard enough to pin me there. Her face was inches from mine, cold and sharp under the red emergency lights.

"You just fried three blocks of city grid," she said. "Your eyes are still black. Give me one reason not to put you down before the next pulse kills us both."

"Because you're standing in front of the guy keeping the tunnel alive."

"You think this is you keeping it alive?"

The panel behind me sparked. A blue line crawled over the metal, then vanished beneath my shoulder.

I grinned because the alternative was admitting my hands were shaking.

"See? It likes me."

"It’s eating you."

"Technical difference."

"Kai."

She said my name like a warning shot. Not loud. She didn’t need loud.