Chapter 28 · Ghosts in the Machine

"Get your hands off me!"

Julian slammed back against the cold stone of the inner sanctum. His breath came in jagged hitches. He wasn't looking at Sloane. He was staring at the spot where the woman—the impossible, dead woman—had just vanished into the grey mist of Grom’s psyche.

Sloane didn't let go. Her fingers clamped around his wrist like iron shackles, her other hand pinning him hard against the wall. She was too close. He could feel the heat radiating off her armor, the sharp scent of ozone and old blood that clung to her like a second skin.

"Who was that?" Her voice wasn't a question. It was an interrogation.

"I don't—I can't—" Julian choked out. "She's dead. Fifteen years dead. This is Grom's head, Sloane. It's a hallucination. It has to be."

"Hallucinations don't make a man collapse like he's been gutted," Sloane snapped. She shoved him harder, her eyes scanning his face for a single flicker of a lie. "She knew you. She called you by a name I've never heard. Tell me now, or I rip the answer out of you."

Julian let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "What, you want the family history?