Chapter 24 · Knox Takes the Stage

The fire alarm started screaming before I got the drive out of Jessa's hand.

Rowan flinched beside me. Not a normal flinch. Her whole body snapped toward the ceiling, silver hair whipping across her face as every stage light burst on at once.

"Down," she said.

I barely hit the floor before the theater doors exploded inward.

Glass sprayed across the lobby. Somebody shouted. A rifle cracked, and the old ticket booth behind us folded in half.

Jessa shoved the drive into my palm. "Tell me you backed it up."

"Tell me you brought more than one copy."

"I brought three."

"You said two."

"I was trying to sound confident. Move!"

We ran.

The theater had been dead for six years, but I knew every door, every trap, every busted service passage. I grabbed Rowan's wrist and pulled her behind the curtains as another shot chewed through the lobby wall.

Her skin was hot. Too hot. Blue-white lines crawled under it, lighting her veins like somebody had wired a city map into her arms.

"They're locking onto you," I said.

"I know."

"Can you fight?"

She looked at me. Her pupils had gone white.

"Commander, I can fight."

"Great.