Chapter 28 · No Commander

Rowan’s hand was inside my chest.

Not through skin. Through light.

A white-hot line ran from her palm to the hole under my ribs, and every time she pulled, my knees buckled. The freight elevator shook around us. Broken bulbs swung from their wires. Somewhere above, alarms screamed and people were running.

I grabbed Rowan’s wrist. "Stop."

She didn’t.

Her silver hair stuck to her face with blood. Her eyes had gone flat and bright, the blue washed out by the hard glow burning behind them.

"You are the lock," she said.

Her voice sounded like Rowan. The words didn’t.

"And you are the door."

Then she pulled again.

Pain tore through me. I hit the elevator wall hard enough to crack my shoulder against the metal. My fingers slipped off her arm. I tried to breathe, but the air came in thin and sharp, like my lungs had forgotten the trick.

The bond between us flashed.

For half a second, I saw a room I’d never been in. Black glass. White restraints. A little girl sitting behind a window with both hands pressed to it.

Then the image snapped away.

Rowan jerked back.

The light vanished from her hand.