Chapter 9 · Nine Hours of Dark

"You knew." I shoved him against the alley wall hard enough his head cracked brick. "You knew the core would die."

Cade didn't fight back. Just stood there, hands loose at his sides, blood still wet on his collar from the shot he'd taken for me two resets ago. Or was it three? The city had gone black when the core flatlined, and now we had nine hours instead of nine minutes, and I didn't know which was worse.

"Yeah," he said. "I knew."

I pulled the gun. His gun, the one I'd lifted off him while he was bleeding out in reset forty-three. It felt heavier now. Or maybe I was just tired.

"So you let me run around like an idiot, chasing proof, burning contacts, while you—what? Waited for the battery to die?"

"I waited," Cade said, "for you to figure it out without getting shot."

"Well, great job on that." I pressed the muzzle under his jaw. His pulse jumped against the steel. I felt it through the grip. "Give me one reason I don't end this right here."

"Because you need me." His voice didn't shake. "You hate me, fine.