Chapter 33 · You were built to obey!

She felt his heartbeat against her back. Fast. Heavy. Still there.

The system demanded a choice.

PURGE.

AWAKEN.

Sera reached past both commands.

The Core resisted.

She forced her access through the command layer, past the weapon protocols, past the memory vault, past every locked door someone had built inside her skull.

A voice screamed in her head.

Not hers.

Oren’s.

"You were built to obey!"

Sera bared her teeth. "Then you built badly."

She tore through the first seal.

The chamber doors blew inward.

Kael twisted, putting his body between her and the flying metal. A shard sliced across his shoulder. He grunted but didn’t release her.

"Kael!"

"Keep going!"

"You’re hit."

"I’ve been hit before. Keep going!"

Armored figures poured through the broken doorway. Civic execution guards. Weapons raised. Oren’s voice barked from somewhere behind them.

"Step away from the Core!"

Sera heard the order through the alarms.

Kael heard it too.

His arm tightened across her ribs. "Don’t look at them."

"They’re aiming at you."

"They’re aiming at both of us."

"That was supposed to make me feel better?"

"No. It was supposed to make you angry."

It worked.

Sera pushed harder into the command layer.