Chapter 20 · The Key

"Get your hand on the scanner, Maya. Now!"

Iris wasn't asking. She was screaming, her voice barely cutting through the roar of the collapsing ceiling. Concrete groaned above us, raining grit and dust onto my shoulders.

I didn't move. I couldn't. I was staring at the blood dripping from my arm, then at the tattoo on Kade’s forearm. Three jagged lines. The same mark my mother had. The same ghost that had haunted my nightmares for ten years.

"You lied to me," I spat. My voice shook, but I stepped back, my boots sliding in the debris. "You knew who she was. You knew about the protocol, and you let me walk right into this."

Kade gasped, leaning heavily against the cold steel of the vault door. He looked wrecked, his face pale, breath coming in ragged hitches.

"I didn't... I didn't want you in this, Maya," he wheezed. "She told me to find you. But she told me to protect you from the truth."

"Protect me?" I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "By leading me into a death trap?"

"Enough with the interrogation!" Iris roared.