Chapter 12 · Sparkbound - Chapter 12: Heartbeat of Fire

"Get behind me, Wren. Now."

Draven slammed his shoulder into the iron door just as a hunter's blade punched through it.

The metal buckled inward. Wren stumbled back, one hand clamped around the tether cuff linking her wrist to his. The bond between them flashed hot under her skin.

"You said the east tunnel was clear," she snapped.

"It was."

Another blade drove through the door.

Draven looked over his shoulder. His face had gone gray around the mouth, but his grip stayed steady. Black veins crawled up the side of his neck, disappearing beneath his collar.

"Then your friends are getting faster," Wren said.

"They're not my friends."

"They wear your uniform."

"And they want you dead. Move."

He kicked the maintenance hatch open behind them. A narrow passage waited beyond it, lit by red emergency strips and thick with smoke. Somewhere below, the sealed fire chamber groaned.

Not a normal groan. The sound came through the floor and into Wren's bones.

The fire was awake.

And it had been calling her for the last ten minutes.

"No," she said.

Draven grabbed her arm. "That wasn't a request."

"The chamber is below us."

"I know where it is.