Chapter 18 · The Drowned Arena

The tunnel beyond the Heartbeat Gate smelled of hot metal, old water, and blood.

Eve kept one hand against the wall as she walked. The stone vibrated beneath her palm, not with machinery this time, but with the deep, irregular pulse of the Dawn Core. Each beat traveled through the passage and into her bones.

Thump.

The blue light under her skin answered.

Thump.

Cain stumbled beside her.

His shoulder struck the wall hard enough to scrape fabric from his coat. Eve caught him before he dropped, hooking an arm around his waist. His weight dragged at her knees. Blood had soaked through the makeshift bandage beneath his ribs and painted his fingers dark.

“Don’t,” he muttered.

“You’re welcome.”

“I meant don’t carry me.”

“You’re not exactly walking.”

“I’m walking.”

“You’re leaning.”

“Strategic leaning.”

Despite the pain clawing through her skull, Eve almost smiled. Then another pulse moved through the corridor, and the smile died before it reached her mouth.

The black box floated ahead of them, its cracked casing spitting pale static. Its voice came in fragments, layered over itself.

“—Dawn Key recognized—memory restoration—warning: unauthorized biometric resonance—