Chapter 19 · The Gun Remembers

The rune sears through my jacket like a brand, and I'm on my knees before I know I've moved.

"Ivy?" Zero backs up a step. Smart move.

I press my left hand over the metal like that'll help. It doesn't. Blue light leaks out between my fingers, and under my palm the rune's hot enough to blister. "Shut up," I grind out. "Just—give me a second."

He shuts up. The street's dead quiet except for wind dragging trash down the gutter and some dog barking three blocks over. Normal city noise. Meanwhile my own arm is trying to put a bullet through the one guy who might know where my sister went.

The gun pulses. Wants. Needs.

"No," I say, out loud, to a piece of metal fused into my skin. "You don't get to decide."

Zero's staring at me like I've cracked. Maybe I have. This thing's been quiet three years—I thought it was dead—and the second it sees his face it wakes up starving.

That means something. I just don't know what yet.

"Back at the lab." I force it out through my teeth. "You said the gun recognized you.