Chapter 17 · Bloodline Lies

"You’re lying to me, Jax. Just say it," Elise spat, her voice vibrating with a mix of fury and something that sounded dangerously like panic.

She had me pinned against the reinforced wall of the safehouse, her forearm pressed hard against my windpipe. I could feel the heat radiating off her skin, the scent of ozone and burnt gunpowder clinging to her gear. My heart was hammering against my ribs, and not just because I was being choked. The living gear in my chest was humming, a low, hungry vibration that synced with her own erratic pulse.

"I didn't lie about the crest, Elise," I wheezed, clawing at her sleeve. "I just didn't tell you how it got on the blueprint. There's a difference."

"The difference is a goddamn lie!" She slammed me harder against the metal. Her eyes, usually a cold, calculating steel, were wide and shimmering. "My father was a decorated Magus. He didn't collaborate with black-market core-runners. He wouldn't have signed off on a forbidden forge. So where did this come from?"

I stopped fighting for a second, my breath hitching. I could see the fine tremor in her hand.