Chapter 11 · The Core Hears Her

"Tell me why you were standing beside my table." Sera drove Kael back against the archive vault door, her blade pressed under his ribs.

The metal edge bit through his shirt. His hands stayed at his sides, but the bond between them tightened like a wire pulled through both their chests.

Kael looked down at the knife, then at her face. "Because Oren was about to erase you."

"That is not an answer."

"It is the only one you get while armed guards are hunting us through my tower."

A burst of gunfire cracked somewhere beyond the sealed archive. Dust shook loose from the ceiling. Sera did not move the blade.

"You knew the lab," she said. "You knew the operating room. You knew what that file meant. And you still let me believe you were just another bastard trying to use me."

Kael’s jaw flexed. "You never believed I was just anything."

"Funny. You had twelve hours to correct me. You spent most of them giving orders."

"You spent most of them trying to break my fingers."

"They grew back."

"The left one is still shaking."

Sera glanced at her hand. It was.