Chapter 46 · The Memory Knife

"Get out of my head!" Sera slammed both palms against the black glass while the Core answered with her own voice.

"You came here for the truth," it whispered. "So take it."

The shackle at her throat tightened.

Sera dropped to one knee. Heat ripped down her spine, hard enough to make her teeth click together. Red lines flashed across the chamber floor. The buried engine had stopped humming. Now it was grinding, like a giant blade turning inside the city.

Kael caught her before her shoulder hit the metal platform.

"Don't touch me."

"Then stand up."

"I said don't—"

The Core punched another memory through her.

A surgical lamp. Straps across her wrists. A man's hand holding a silver blade over her temple.

Not Kael. Older. Harder. The face blurred before she could grab it.

Sera drove her elbow back. Kael twisted, took the hit against his ribs, and kept one arm locked around her waist.

"You want to break my ribs, wait until we're not standing beside a collapsing war engine."

"Let me go."

"If I let you go, the shackle takes control."

"You don't know that."

"I can feel it through the bond.