Chapter 10 · Hunters and Prey

"Take your signal back." Cael's hand locked around my wrist before the trap could drain another pulse from him. "Now, Lex."

"If I do, it kills you."

"Then make it quick."

The vent walls squeezed tight around us. My knees were jammed against his thigh, my shoulder pinned beneath his chest, and the thin metal floor kept flashing with red lines as the ghost-trap pulled at our linked systems.

Cael's face had gone pale. Not scared. He didn't do scared. But his jaw was clenched hard enough to crack a tooth, and a dark thread of blood ran from one nostril to his upper lip.

The trap pulsed again.

His fingers tightened. "Lex."

"Stop saying my name like you're about to shoot me."

"I'm considering it."

"Cute. You'd crash with me."

"That is why I haven't done it."

The link between us jerked. Pain ripped through my skull, then jumped straight into his nervous system. Cael's back slammed against the vent wall. His breath punched out between his teeth.

I felt it all.

The metal biting his spine. The trap crawling through his implant.