Chapter 35 · Steal the Starlight - Chapter 35: One Last Villainous Lie

"Get away from her!" Cade's voice cracked through the speakers as the core slammed another pulse into my chest.

Wren folded against me with a sharp gasp. Her fingers dug into my jacket, hot and shaking. I felt the same pain tear through her a second later, only she didn't make a sound.

That was the link.

Every hit landed on both of us now.

"Ellis." Wren's mouth brushed my ear. "Don't move."

"Great plan," I rasped. "You want to explain the part where we're both dying?"

The black shard buried in my palm burned like a live wire. Black veins of light crawled up my wrist and vanished beneath my sleeve. Across from us, the broken core floated over the ruined platform, pulling pieces of metal and glass into a tight spinning ring.

A red warning flashed on the control wall.

LINK STABLE.

CORE ACTIVE.

SACRIFICE REQUIRED.

Wren saw it too. Her grip tightened.

"Cade," she said, "shut it down."

"I can't."

"That wasn't a request."

"And I said I can't! The link locked when your powers merged. If I cut the current, it won't release you. It'll rip the connection apart."

"Then rip it."

"It'll kill you both."