Chapter 36 · Cockpit of the Monster

The city broke open beneath them.

Eli hit the floor as the next cannon blast rolled through the underground command station. Dust poured from the ceiling. Glass screens burst in their frames, spraying blue shards across the emergency consoles. Somewhere above, people screamed, and the deep metallic heartbeat under the plaza answered with a thunderous boom.

His own heart answered back.

Boom.

The ember beneath his ribs flared scarlet.

Boom.

Heat crawled through his veins, burning behind his eyes. Eli clenched one hand against the concrete and tasted blood. His shoulder was soaked through. Every breath pulled at the wound beneath his coat, but the pain had become distant now, drowned beneath the rhythm rising from the earth.

Sera caught herself against a dead console. Blood ran from the cut at her temple, tracing a red line down her cheek. Her fingers still held the broken halves of the inheritance key. The crystal had shattered when she struck it against the command dais, but a faint gold light continued to pulse between the fragments.

Marlow stared at the floor.

“Tell me that’s a buried reactor,” he said.

Another boom shook the room.

The concrete split between their feet.

Marlow swallowed.