Chapter 6 · Below the Acidline

The tunnel door slammed behind them with enough force to shake rust from the ceiling.

Eve staggered forward, one hand pressed against her ribs. Blood warmed her fingers beneath the torn fabric of her jacket. Behind them, something heavy struck the sealed door. Once. Twice. A wet, metallic screech dragged across the other side.

Cain caught her elbow before her knees gave out.

“Keep moving.”

“That’s your medical advice?” Eve snapped. “I’m bleeding.”

“You’re alive.”

“For now.”

His grip tightened, not quite gentle, not quite a restraint. His face was gray beneath the tunnel’s emergency glow, and a line of blood ran from his hairline to his jaw. He had taken a blade across the temple on the bridge. He had not bothered wiping it away.

The door buckled inward.

Cain looked over his shoulder. “For now is a luxury. Move.”

They plunged into the lower transit tunnel.

The air changed first. The dry, electric stink of the research district vanished beneath the sour bite of acid and stagnant water. Eve tasted metal on her tongue. Every breath scratched her throat. A thin mist floated just above the tracks, pale and shimmering in the weak red light.