Chapter 16 · The Living Lock

"Get your hands off me!" Justin's voice scraped out of him as I dragged him up by his ruined jacket.

"Still playing the hero?" I snarled. "Or was that blast your goodbye kiss?"

His expensive coat hung in torn strips. Blood ran from his temple into his mouth. He spat red dirt at my boots.

The purple device behind him kept pulsing.

Thump.

Thump.

Every pulse made my teeth ache. Ozone burned the back of my throat, mixed with the copper stink of blood. The blast had thrown us both across the clearing.

I had landed standing.

Justin had landed broken.

"You crazy—" He coughed. "You don't get to touch me."

"Funny." I tightened my fist in his collar. "You didn't ask permission before trying to blow us apart."

"Sia."

Kane's voice rolled over the clearing.

I didn't look back. "What?"

"Let him go."

"No."

"That's not a request."

"Then stop talking and make me."

A cold silence dropped between us.

Kane stepped out of the shadows. His boots crushed the frosted grass, one slow step at a time. He wasn't looking at Justin.

He was watching me.

His eyes tracked my shaking hand. My quick breaths.