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"Move, Evelyn!" Nolan grabbed the back of my coat and yanked me off my feet.
A rifle burst chewed through the brick where my head had been.
I hit the pavement hard, rolled through gray ash, and came up with my pistol aimed at Nolan's chest. He stood over me, breathing fast, one hand still locked in my coat.
"Touch me again and lose the fingers."
"You can threaten me after we stop the people shooting at us."
"You brought them here."
Another round slammed into the wall. Dust poured over us.
Nolan shoved me behind a collapsed delivery truck. His body covered mine for half a second, close enough that I felt the heat of him through two layers of clothing. His breath hit my cheek.
"Three hunters," he said. "Maybe four."
"You counted while they were firing?"
"I count everything."
"Then count how many bullets I have left."
His mouth tightened. "Not enough."
I checked the magazine anyway. Four rounds.
Four bullets. Two of us. A six-block run through the dead industrial district. And the water plant gate still had to open for us.
If we reached it.
A voice carried through the broken street. "Evelyn Hart! Step away from the fugitive!"
Nolan's eyes cut to mine.
"They know your name," he said.
"They know everyone's name."
"No. They used yours first."
I pressed my shoulder against the truck and peeked around the edge. A black armored figure moved between the burned-out storefronts. The white Authority strip on his sleeve flashed through the ash.
A second hunter took position on a roof.
The third stayed hidden.
"What did you do before I found you?" I whispered.
"I don't remember."
"Convenient."
"You think I planned this?"
"I think men don't usually get a kill order from the Authority unless they've done something worth killing them for."
His gaze dropped to the gun in my hand. "You still have that order in your pocket?"
"I have your blood on my gloves. That's close enough."
For one sharp second, he looked at my hands.
The cut across his palm had sealed after I used his blood to wake the dead dome relay. It should not have worked. The old emergency grid had been cold for eleven years. One touch from him, one drop of his blood, and every buried light beneath the city had flashed alive.
That was why the Authority wanted him.
That was why I had dragged him out of a black-market cage.
That was why my little brother Mika was still waiting for me at the water plant with a failing filter and maybe two hours of clean air left.
The hunter shouted again. "Last warning! Hand over Nolan Vale, and the runner keeps breathing."
Nolan's head snapped toward me. "They know me too."
"Congratulations. You're popular."
"You said nobody knew who I was."
"I said I didn't know. Big difference."
He caught my wrist before I could lean out again. His fingers closed around the pulse point, firm but careful. The neural contract buried under my skin responded at once. Pain shot up my arm and across my ribs.
I sucked in a breath.
Nolan felt it. His grip loosened, but he didn't let go.
"We're too far apart," he said.
"We're standing next to each other."
"The tether doesn't care about distance like that. It cares about the signal. Something is blocking it."
A low siren started somewhere beyond the ruins.
The ash around us trembled as a transport rolled into the district.
"Great," I said. "More friends."
Nolan pulled me closer. "There's a service pipe under the truck."
"It goes where?"
"Toward the water plant."
"You can read a map now?"
"I can read the markings."
"You couldn't read your own name yesterday."
His jaw flexed. "Get in the pipe."
"That's an order?"
"That's me trying to keep you alive."
"Try nicer."
He leaned in until his mouth was beside my ear. His voice dropped low enough that the words brushed my skin.
"Please get in the pipe before they put a round through your skull."
I hated that the answer came so easily.
"Better."
He kicked the rusted grate aside. A dark opening waited beneath the truck, barely wide enough for one person at a time.
I shoved the pistol into my waistband and dropped through first.
The pipe scraped my shoulders. Hot metal pressed against my back. Nolan came in behind me, and the space disappeared.
His knee bumped mine. His chest settled against my spine. One of his hands braced beside my head while the other pulled the grate back into place.
"If you breathe down my neck, I swear—"
"I'm not doing it on purpose."
"You could try not being six feet tall."
"You could try being less difficult."
"I don't take advice from men with mystery blood."
The transport rolled over the street above us.
Metal groaned. Boots hit pavement. Someone shouted my name again.
Nolan's arm wrapped across my waist before I could shift. Not gentle. Not rough either. Just enough to stop me from scraping against the pipe and making noise.
His palm spread over my ribs.
My heartbeat kicked hard beneath it.
So did his.
The tether caught both pulses and dragged them together.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The same rhythm. Violent. Too fast.
I clenched my teeth. "Let go."
"If I do, you hit the pipe."
"Then let me hit it."
"No."
"You don't get to decide that."
"I do when your pulse is trying to tear the contract open."
The pain tightened around my chest. My fingers dug into the metal floor.
"Fix it."
"I'm trying."
"Try harder."
His breath warmed the side of my neck. "Stop fighting me."
"You kidnapped my nervous system."
"You signed the contract."
"You shoved your hand into the interface while I was bleeding."
"You were dying."
"I was busy."
His hand tightened at my waist. "You were dying."
The words landed differently this time.
Above us, a hunter stopped directly over the grate.
A boot pressed down.
I felt Nolan's arm lock around me. His body went still behind mine. Every inch of him was ready to move, but he held himself tight, waiting.
The hunter tapped the metal with his rifle.
"Runner," he called. "I can hear you breathing."
Nolan lowered his mouth near my ear again. "Don't answer."
"I wasn't planning to invite him in."
"You always talk when you should run."
"You always grab me when you should ask."
The boot shifted.
The rifle muzzle punched through the thin pipe wall less than an inch from my cheek.
Nolan moved first.
He twisted, shoved my head down, and drove his shoulder into the pipe. The metal buckled. The rifle tore free with a shower of sparks.
The hunter cursed.
Nolan kicked the wall beside us.
Once.
Twice.
On the third kick, the pipe split open into a maintenance trench.
He pushed me through before him. I landed in black water up to my knees and spun with my pistol out.
The hunter dropped through the torn pipe opening.
I fired.
The shot caught his armor at the shoulder and knocked him sideways. Nolan grabbed the man's rifle and slammed the stock into his helmet.
"That was my last bullet," I said.
"Then stop wasting them."
"I saved your life."
"You grazed his shoulder."
"You're welcome."
A second muzzle flashed above the trench.
Nolan shoved me under the pipe lip as rounds tore through the water. The shock rattled my teeth. He landed over me, one hand pressed against the concrete beside my head.
His face was inches away.
Ash clung to his hair. A thin line of blood ran from his temple. His eyes stayed on mine, dark and focused, while gunfire punched the trench walls around us.
"You're bleeding," I said.
"Not important."
"Everything bleeding is important to me."
His stare dropped to my mouth and came back up.
The pause was tiny.
I still felt it.
"Don't look at me like that," I whispered.
"Like what?"
"Like you forgot what we're doing."
"I haven't forgotten."
"You don't remember anything."
"I remember enough."
"Do you?"
His hand shifted beside my head. His knuckles brushed my glove.
"I remember you pointing a gun at me," he said. "I remember you lying to my face. I remember you cutting me open to steal what was in my blood."
"And yet you keep saving me."
"You keep getting in front of bullets."
"Maybe I like making bad choices."
"That makes two of us."
The hunter above shouted, "Vale! The Authority wants you alive. Hart is disposable!"
Nolan's expression changed.
Not fear.
Something colder.
He reached up, grabbed a hanging cable, and pulled.
The trench lights exploded in a chain of blue sparks. Darkness slammed over us.
"Run," he said.
We moved through the water, shoulder to shoulder. The tether pulled whenever we gained more than a few feet apart, so I kept one hand hooked in the back of his jacket. He kept hold of my wrist.
Neither of us mentioned it.
The trench narrowed ahead.
A steel access door blocked the path.
Nolan pressed his palm to the lock.
Nothing happened.
"Open," he ordered.
The lock stayed dead.
"Try asking nicely," I said.
"Open, please."
"Wow. It hates you too."
He looked at the blood drying across his palm. "The door needs a charge."
"Then charge it."
"It will take more than a drop."
"How much?"
"Enough to hurt."
I pulled the knife from my boot. "Give me your hand."
Nolan caught my elbow. "No."
"You said we need power."
"I said I need it."
"Same problem."
"You don't know what the system will take."
"I know what it takes from you."
He stared at the knife.
"You watched the dome relay drain him," I said. "You felt it. Don't pretend this is noble."
"I wasn't pretending."
"Then move."
He didn't.
I stepped closer and pressed the blade against my palm.
His fingers closed around my wrist before I could cut.
"Evelyn."
My name in his mouth did something stupid to my breathing.
"Let go."
"No."
"You're fond of that word."
"You don't get to bleed for me."
"That's rich, coming from the man whose blood might save the whole city."
His face was close again. The pipe gave us nowhere to go. His coat brushed my knees. Heat gathered between us despite the cold water and the metal pressing into my back.
"The city can burn," he said. "I'm not letting it use you."
"You don't get to choose what I risk."
"I do if the contract ties your pain to mine."
"Then feel it with me."
I twisted my wrist free and dragged the knife across my palm.
The cut was shallow, but the lock woke instantly.
Blue light flooded the trench.
Nolan swore and grabbed my hand. His thumb pressed over the cut, stopping the blood.
The door groaned open.
A blast of poisoned air rolled through the gap.
My filter chirped red.
Nolan reached for the spare mask at my belt.
"Don't," I snapped.
"Your filter is failing."
"Mika needs the spare."
"You need air."
"Mika needs it more."
"You don't even know if he's still at the plant."
"He is."
"How do you know?"
I pulled free and stepped through the doorway. "Because he promised he'd wait."
Nolan followed, close enough that his shoulder struck mine.
"People break promises," he said.
"Not Mika."
"You trust him more than me."
I stopped.
He stopped too.
The blue emergency light cut across his face, catching the blood at his temple and the tension in his mouth.
"You want the honest answer?" I asked.
"I want one answer from you that isn't a weapon."
"I trust Mika because he has never tried to decide whether I live or die."
Nolan's gaze held mine.
"I pulled you out of that cage," he said.
"After you put a knife to my throat."
"You were going to leave me there."
"You were a bounty."
"And now?"
The tether pulsed between us.
His hand was still wrapped around mine. His skin was hot. My blood marked his thumb.
"Now you're a problem," I said.
"That's not what I asked."
"It's the answer you're getting."
A siren wailed behind us.
The hunters had found the access door.
Nolan stepped in front of me. "We have maybe thirty seconds."
"Then stop asking questions."
He caught my face between both hands and turned me toward the service tunnel.
"Stay behind me."
"Try to keep up."
We ran.
The tunnel shook as the hunters forced the door. Concrete dust rained down. My filter chirped faster with every breath, and the air burned the back of my throat.
Nolan kept one hand locked around mine. When I slipped, he hauled me upright. When he staggered, I dragged him forward.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Ask me after we get inside."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting."
The tunnel ended at a ladder.
Above it, a hatch stood half open.
We climbed into the outer yard of the water plant.
I hit the ground first and turned toward the gate.
Then I stopped.
Mika's filter mask hung from the iron bars.
Blood streaked the white plastic. A dark line ran from the cracked seal to the small breathing valve.
My lungs forgot how to work.
"No," I said.
Nolan came up behind me. His hand found my shoulder.
I knocked it away. "Don't touch me."
A holographic timer flickered above the gate.
03:00.
02:59.
02:58.
The gate locks clicked into place.
Nolan stared at the mask. "Evelyn—"
"That's his."
"We don't know that."
"I repaired that filter three times. See the red tape? I wrapped it around the valve because the seal was split. That's Mika's."
The comm at my belt crackled.
Static hissed once.
Then a stranger breathed into the channel.
"Runner," the voice said. "You made it. Good."
I raised my pistol with its empty magazine anyway.
"Where is my brother?"
A soft laugh came through the comm.
"You have three minutes to open the gate. After that, the boy stops breathing."
Nolan's hand closed around my wrist.
The tether slammed our heartbeats into the same brutal rhythm.
Thump.
Thump.
The timer flashed 02:41.
I looked at the bloody mask, then at Nolan.
He leaned close, his breath warm against my cheek, and said, "Evelyn, if you open that gate, they get both of us. If you don't, Mika—"
The timer dropped to 02:40.
My fingers reached for the gate control, but Nolan caught them before they touched the panel.
"Three minutes," he said. "Evelyn, if they took Mika, then who is waiting for us inside—"