Chapter 13 · You have no idea what you just stole

She shoved him upright.

The commander ripped off her ruined glove. Her eyes burned through Mara.

"You have no idea what you just stole."

"A recording."

"No. A key."

Cael’s face hardened. "Mara, run."

The commander pulled a silver disc from inside her coat and pressed her thumb against its center. A pulse slammed through the yard.

Every Crown soldier straightened.

Their pupils flashed white.

Mara’s black fire answered.

Pain tore up her arm.

Cael grabbed her around the waist and hauled her backward as the soldiers attacked. His coat wrapped around her shoulders for one breath, shielding her from a spray of metal darts.

"You’re getting predictable," she said.

"You’re getting heavy."

"Call me heavy again and I’ll let them have you."

"You won’t."

"Try me."

He dragged her through the back gate and into a stairwell. They stumbled down three steps before Mara caught the railing.

"The key," she said. "What did she mean?"

"Not here."

"You don’t get to decide that."

"I do when the people chasing us can hear you."

He shoved open a steel door. They spilled into an abandoned tram tunnel. The door slammed behind them.