Chapter 7 · Beneath Halcyon

The tunnel didn't collapse all at once.

It groaned in layers—metal screaming, concrete splitting, dust pouring down like poisoned rain. Behind us, the emergency gate folded inward and crushed the last route out.

I pressed myself against the wall, one hand braced over my ribs. The Covenant Engine still burned under my skin. Gold lines pulsed along my wrist, then vanished up my sleeve like fire crawling through veins.

The dust tasted like copper and old rain.

Kane stood three steps away, half-hidden in the haze. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow and tracked down the side of his face. He didn't wipe it away. His eyes stayed locked on the darkness behind us, where the tunnel was still settling.

"No one's coming through that," he said.

"You sound disappointed."

His gaze flicked to me. "I sound alive."

"Barely."

"So do you."

I looked down at my hand. It was shaking. Not from fear—not entirely. The Engine had accepted my vow. *Protect Kane.* It had turned that vow into something violent enough to tear a corridor out of the earth.

The price hadn't been mine.

It had taken from him instead.

A name. A face.