Chapter 35 · Zero Awakening

"Don't touch him." I slammed both hands against Cael's chest, but the black static swallowed my palms and dragged him another inch into the broken floor.

His body was still there. His coat. His boots. The hard line of his jaw.

Everything else was sinking into a dark hole that had opened beneath the ruins.

"Lex, move!" Milo shouted from somewhere behind the wreckage. "The Erasers are inside!"

"Then make them wait."

"They don't wait! They shoot!"

A burst of white fire tore through the wall above my head. Stone cracked. Dust slapped across my face.

Cael didn't blink.

That scared me more than the guns.

I grabbed his collar and pulled. His body jerked toward me, but the void clamped down harder. Cold raced up my arms. It felt like someone had pushed a live wire under my skin.

"Cael." I slapped his cheek. "Look at me."

His eyes stayed open, but they weren't seeing the ruins anymore. His irises had gone flat and silver, filled with crawling system code.

"Lex," he said.

His voice came from three places at once. His mouth. The floor. Inside my skull.

"I'm right here."

"You need to let go."

"Yeah, no.