Chapter 12 · Untitled Chapter

"Your brother's dying." Mina dropped beside the boy and pressed two fingers to his throat. "We've got maybe three minutes. Less if that pulse drops again."

Jace stared at the kid's gray face. He couldn't have been older than thirteen. Green light crawled beneath his skin, twisting through his meridian lines in tight, ugly knots.

"Then fix him," Jace said.

"I can't." Mina shoved his shoulder aside and checked the boy's chest. "Someone locked his channels from the inside. It's eating him alive."

"Someone like me?"

Her eyes cut to him. "Someone exactly like you."

The boy's breath caught. His lips had gone purple.

Jace dropped to his knees. "What's his name?"

Mina's mouth tightened. "Kai. My brother."

"You dragged me halfway across the city because I can see these lines. Use me."

"You don't know what you're asking for."

"I know Kai's dying. Make the rest simple."

Mina's hand stopped over the boy's chest. Her fingers were steady, but her thumb wasn't. It kept tapping against her palm.

"If I unlock you," she said, "you could die with him."

"Could?"

"The last line breaker who forced a lock from the inside flatlined for four minutes.