Chapter 19 · Echoes of a Dead Man

“Take your hand off the core, Kael.”

Sloane caught his wrist before his fingers touched the brass housing. Her grip locked hard enough to make his bones complain.

“Let go.”

“Not happening.”

The resonance chamber screamed between them. Blue-white sparks crawled over the gears, snapping from tooth to tooth. Kael could feel the pulse in his teeth. It matched the mark burned into the back of his neck.

His mark.

Her mark.

One pulse. Two bodies.

“Your weapon is feeding the Heart,” he said. “Shut it down.”

Sloane shoved him away from the console. “If I shut it down, every alarm in Augusta goes off.”

“Then let them come.”

“They won’t come for me.” Her eyes cut toward the sealed iron door. “They’ll come for you. The city already wants your head.”

“Good. Maybe one of them will answer a question.”

“Maybe one of them will put a bullet through your skull before you ask it.”

Kael twisted against her hold. The motion dragged him close instead of freeing him. His shoulder hit her chest. Her breath touched his jaw, warm and sharp with the bitter coffee she had been drinking downstairs.

For half a second, neither of them moved.