Chapter 27 · The Memory Market

"Take your hand off my throat, or I swear I’ll bite through your thumb." Kael’s fingers tightened anyway.

His back pinned me against the rusted service door. The metal dug into my shoulders, and his body blocked the only path out of the room. Close enough that I felt each sharp breath against my cheek.

"Try it," he said.

"You’re enjoying this way too much."

"No. I’m deciding whether you’re about to get us both killed."

Behind him, the market alarms screamed.

Red lights flashed over the narrow room. Somewhere beyond the door, boots hammered across the upper level. Civic guards had found the hidden entrance. They had maybe three minutes before they cut through the lock.

Maybe less.

Kael’s thumb rested over the black interface at the base of his neck. The same device that linked his pulse to mine. The same device that had burned through my nerves when the Core answered us beneath the city.

"Mira said she can pull the memory lock," I said. "You said she couldn’t be trusted."

"I said she sells secrets."

"That’s not the same thing."

"It is when the secret is yours.