Chapter 25 · Don't Take the Key

The key's in my hand before I think about it.

Metal, cold, carved with symbols that look like they've been burned in. It was sitting on the console where Echo dropped it—right before the tower started screaming alarms and the storm outside hit the glass hard enough to crack it. She's bleeding from the ear, slumped against the wall. I should've left her. I should've thrown her off the roof when I had the chance.

But I didn't.

And now I'm holding this thing, and Mom's voice is still ringing in my head. Don't take the key. Break it.

I squeeze it. The edges bite into my palm.

"Kai." Echo's voice is ragged. She's got one hand pressed to the side of her head, the other reaching out like she's gonna claw the key back. "Don't be stupid."

"Stupid's all I got left," I say.

She tries to stand, can't. Her legs fold. Blood's dripping down her neck, dark against her skin. Whatever that blast was—the one I sent through her network, the one that told the whole city Steelhook's plan to throw me into the storm like bait—it fried something in her implant.