Chapter 5

Cael was slumped against the workbench, sleeve pushed up. Three red dots marred his forearm where the machine had already tried. He was too pale. Too still.

He looked up, eyes glassy. "I'm fine. Let him finish."

"You don't look fine," I said. "You look like you're about to pass out on my floor."

"Charming as always." He tried to smile. It didn't reach his eyes. His breathing was shallow, ragged. "The system recognized me. That's progress."

"Progress toward what? You flatlining?" I whipped around to Nico. "Explain. Now. In words I actually understand."

Nico swallowed hard, tapping his cracked tablet. The screen was a strobe of red warnings. CROWN BIOMETRIC: ARDEN - VERIFIED. CIRCUIT: INCOMPLETE.

"Okay, look—the grid knows him. It tasted his blood and went, 'Yeah, you're royal, come on in.' But the door won't open."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not a door," Nico's voice shook. "It's a lock with two keys. Arden blood is key one. But the second key—" He looked at me. "It's Voss."

My stomach dropped. "What?"

"Your blood," Cael said quietly. "It wants your blood, Mara."

"That's bullshit. I'm not royal. I'm a hunter. I'm nobody."

"You're a Voss," Nico countered. "The old Crown systems were built before the purge. Before they erased your family. The logs I pulled list two founder lines. Arden and Voss. Both have to turn the key at the same time or the circuit fries itself."

I stared at the machine. A rusted plate with two palm-shaped indentations. One glowed a faint, sickly blue. The other was dead.

"So you want me to bleed on it."

"I want you to complete the circuit," Nico said. "But Mara—last time we tried to force it with just his blood, the feedback almost stopped his heart. His pulse dropped to thirty."

I looked at Cael. His jaw was tight, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. "You didn't tell me that part."

"You were busy yelling at Nico,"\ he said.

"Don't do that. Don't make jokes when your heart is literally stopping."

"Then don't look at me like that," he shot back, his voice dropping an octave. "Like I'm already dead."

We were too close. His knee pressed against my leg as I crouched beside him. I could feel the heat radiating off him—feverish, oppressive. The air smelled of blood, hot metal, and Nico's cheap garage soap.

"How dangerous is this?" I asked, eyes locked on Cael.

Nico hesitated. "If it rejects you? It dumps the charge back into both of you. It could stop his heart for real this time. Yours too."

"Great. Love those odds."

"Mara, you don't have to," Cael said. His fingers brushed my wrist. Cold. Despite the fever, his touch was ice. "We can find another way."

I pulled back. "We have sixty hours before the city resets and your brand eats my memories for breakfast. There is no other way."

"So you volunteer to kill us both because you're impatient?" There it was. That alpha snap. That command in his voice.

"I volunteer because I'm not letting you die on my watch," I snapped back. "You think I want to be chained to your corpse for the next loop? Forget it."

His eyes darkened. He leaned in. Just an inch, but the air between us vanished. "You care if I live. Just say it."

"I care that you don't leave me stuck," I whispered. My voice was thinner than I wanted. "Don't get ideas."

"Too late," he murmured. His breath hit my cheek. "You already have ideas about me. I saw it when you watched my memory."

My face went hot. "Shut up."

"Make me."

"Oh my god, can you two not flirt while you're about to electrocute yourselves?" Nico burst out. "Please? For my sanity?"

I stood up fast, putting distance between us. My brand burned on my forearm, pulsing in time with Cael's. "Tell me what to do."

Nico wiped his hands on his shirt. "Both put your hands on the plate. At the same time. And you have to mean it. The system reads intent, not just blood. You have to want the route to open."

"Want it how?"

"Like you want to live,"\ Nico said.

Cael pushed himself upright, swaying. I instinctively caught his chest to steady him. His heart was hammering under my palm. Too fast. Erratic.

"Hey," I said, softer. "You with me?"

He covered my hand with his. His palm was rough, warm now. He held it there a second too long. "Always," he said. "Even when you want me dead."

"I don't want you dead," I admitted, barely a whisper. "Not anymore. That's the problem."

The cocky mask dropped. For a second, he just looked at me. Raw. Open. "Then don't let go when it hurts, okay?"

"I don't let go."

"Prove it."

We turned to the plate. Two indentations. Two bloodlines.

"On three," Nico said, finger hovering over the tablet. "One—two—"

"Wait," I said. My hand was shaking. "If this kills him—"

"It won't," Nico said, though he sounded unsure.

"Mara," Cael said. He took my hand and pressed it over the dark indentation. His skin against mine. "Trust me. Or trust that you hate me enough to keep me alive just to kill me yourself later. Either works."

I huffed a laugh. "That actually helps. Thanks."

"Anytime, hunter."

"Three!" Nico shouted.

We pressed down.

Ice cold. Then, white-hot. A sharp sting sliced across my palm as the sampler pricked. I gasped. Beside me, Cael hissed through his teeth.

Nothing. Then the blue light flickered.

My blood hit the sensor.

The plate flared.

"Oh shit—" Nico yelled.

Power slammed up my arm. Not electricity—something older. Heavier. It felt like the brand on my arm was being ripped open. I tried to recoil, but Cael's hand locked over mine, pinning me down.

"Don't let go!" he shouted. Veins stood out on his neck, his face twisted in pain. "Mara, hold on!"

"It hurts!" I choked out. Vision whiting out. My heart felt like it would burst. "Cael—"

"I know! Just—look at me! Look at me, not the light!"

I forced my eyes to his. His pupils were blown wide, black swallowing the blue, locked onto mine. His hand was crushing mine, his temperature spiking, his breath ragged against my skin.

"You said you don't let go," he gritted out. "So don't."

"I'm not!" I screamed. The machine shrieked. "I'm not letting go!"

SNAP.

A pressure wave exploded from the plate. It blew Nico off his feet and sent tools flying. It shot through the ceiling, through the concrete, through the entire district.

Then—silence.

Both indentations glowed steady blue. A soft chime came from the tablet.

CIRCUIT: COMPLETE. TRANSIT ROUTE DELTA-9: OPEN.

We were both gasping. Cael's forehead was pressed against mine. I hadn't even realized we'd moved that close. Our blood was smeared together on the plate, warm and sticky.

"You did it," he whispered. His voice was wrecked. "You crazy, stubborn—you did it."

"We did it," I whispered back. I was shaking. "Are you—is your heart—"

He grabbed my hand and pressed it flat to his chest. Pounding. Strong. Alive. "Feel that? That's yours. You kept it beating."

My breath caught. The way he looked at me—like I was the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth—made my chest ache.

"Mara," he said, his thumb brushing the inside of my wrist, right over my pulse. "You have no idea what you just—"

Nico's tablet started screaming.

We jolted apart.

"Oh no," Nico whispered, scrambling up, his face ghost-white. "Oh no no no."

"What?" I snapped.

"That pulse," Nico stared at the screen as red warnings flooded the display. "It wasn't just local. It pinged the Crown network. The whole city felt it. Every royal alarm—"

A siren wailed outside. Then another. And another. One by one, the old royal alarm towers that had been silent for a decade began to howl.

From far above, a calm, automated female voice boomed across the city grid, vibrating the very walls of the garage.

"VOSS BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED. ARDEN BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED. TRANSIT ROUTE DELTA-9 BREACH DETECTED. ALL CROWN UNITS CONVERGE—"

Cael went rigid. Pure panic flashed in his eyes.

"They know where we are," he said. "Mara, they know exactly—"