Chapter 11 · The Hollow Cure - Chapter 11: Don't Touch Me Like That

"Don't touch me like that." Lyra rips her wrist out of my hand and the crystal veins up her forearm flare white-hot.

"If I don't hold it, you die," I snap. My scalpel is already shaking. "You want me to be gentle or you want to live? Pick one."

"Don't give me that choice like you're being noble," she says. Her breath hits my chin, fast and shallow. "You love having your hands on me when I'm helpless. Admit it."

"Yeah, this is exactly my fantasy," I say. "Girl actively crystallizing, altar trying to eat her, me with a dirty blade. Super hot."

She glares. Her eyes are wet but her jaw is steel. "Then cut me loose. Now."

"If I cut the tether, we lose him," I say. "Your dad's pattern is still in there. The cure code is in his ghost. You cut that filament, it's gone. Forever."

"I don't care," she says. "Cut it."

"You will care when you're dead in a week anyway," I say. "That crystal's in your heart already. You saw the scan."

"And you saw what it costs to keep him," she says. Her voice drops. "It's using me as a wire.