Chapter 22 · Borrowed Skin

"Get out of my head!" I slammed both hands against the metal door while Cael's grip locked around my waist.

The body I had borrowed didn't even flinch.

My fingers hit the same access panel again and again. Sparks jumped under my nails. The stolen chrome shell kept moving, one smooth step at a time, dragging me toward the pulsing blue seed in the center of the station chamber.

"Lex, stop fighting the link."

"You first!"

Cael shoved me back against the sealed door. His chest hit my shoulder blades. Heat pushed through the thin fabric of my jacket, too real for a man who had been half-dead on the floor thirty seconds ago.

The body wasn't mine. That was the problem.

I could feel its hands. Its balance. Its sharp little clicks of thought running beneath my own. Every time the blue seed pulsed, the borrowed mind shoved closer to the surface.

My mouth smiled without permission.

Cael went still behind me.

"That's not your smile," he said.

"No kidding."

"Look at me."

"I am looking at you."

My head turned too far. The borrowed neck made a clean, mechanical twist.