Chapter 26 · Untitled Chapter

"Pull it out of me." I caught Eli's wrist before he could raise the gun.

He looked at my fingers first. Then at my face.

His skin was warm. Mine felt cold enough to crack.

"You're asking me to remove an active neural key," he said. "That's not a splinter, Mara. It might be the only thing keeping your brain from collapsing."

"And it might be the thing killing me every twelve minutes."

The archive door slammed shut behind us.

Young Eli spun toward it, gun raised.

A burst of blue fire punched through the metal. The round tore into the wall beside his head.

I knocked his arm aside. "Move!"

"Save the city while you're running."

He grabbed my hand and dragged me between two rows of black storage towers. The old lab shook around us. Red warning lights flashed over glass cases. Alarms screamed from somewhere above.

Purge already started.

I stumbled after him with one hand pressed to my chest.

The key sat somewhere beneath my skin. I couldn't feel its shape. I could feel its pulse, though.