Chapter 30 · Make the City Hear It

The light blade stopped under my chin hard enough to dent the skin.

I held my breath. One wrong move, one twitch from Rowan's hand, and my blood would hit the elevator floor before I got to hear the rest of my mother's message.

"Rowan," I said.

Her eyes didn't blink. They were silver now, bright and empty, with thin black rings spinning through the irises. The blade hummed against my throat.

"Commander identified," she said. Her voice came out flat. Not Rowan's voice. Not the girl who had argued with me over canned soup and stolen my socks and called my terrible coffee "an act of violence."

This voice belonged to a machine waiting for permission to kill.

I raised both hands. My cut palm dripped onto the metal grate between us.

"Hey. Look at me."

"Target confirmed. Nia Vale. Unauthorized command holder."

"Yeah, I heard that part. You can stop repeating it."

The elevator lights flickered. My mother's recording had gone quiet, but her last warning still played in my head.

Don't believe what happens next.

Great. Helpful.