Chapter 20 · The Primary Vessel

"Get away from the key slot, Cade. Now."

Cade kept one hand pressed to the black-crowned seal and looked over his shoulder at me. The seal had opened in the floor, a narrow metal throat swallowing blue fire. Heat was already burning through his glove.

"You heard Evelyn," he said. "The core needs a living anchor."

"It needs a sacrifice. There's a difference."

I crossed the archive floor, boots crunching over broken spirit-lock teeth. Blood leaked through the torn side of Cade's shirt. He moved like the pain belonged to someone else.

That was the problem with him.

He treated his own life like a tool somebody could throw away.

"Take your hand off," I said.

"No."

"Cade."

Blue light climbed his wrist, threading under his skin like hot wire.

"The reset starts before dawn," he said. "If I burn out inside the slot, the city stays locked until the ninth night. You get time."

"Time for what? To watch you die and pretend that's a plan?"

"Time to find another way."

I stopped three steps away. Heat pressed against my face.