Chapter 9 · Price of Resonance

"Don't pull away." His fingers locked around my wrist before I could shove the key back in my pocket.

I twisted hard. He didn't let go. His other hand slammed against the wall by my head, caging me in that tiny safehouse kitchen.

"Get off me, Calder," I said. "You don't get to grab just because you're shaking."

"I'm not shaking," he said. His voice was rough. Scraped raw. "It's feedback. Resonance feedback. You feel it too, right?"

Oh, I felt it. The black key shard in my palm was humming like a live wire and the link-mark on my forearm was burning cold straight up to my elbow. My pulse was doing something weird, syncing to his.

"Yeah, I feel it," I said. "Feels like you being dramatic."

"Mara." He leaned in. Too close. Heat rolled off his chest, sweat at his temple, breath uneven. "Tune it. Now. Or I drop right here and you get to drag my body to the rift."

"That's not my problem."

"It is literally your problem," he snapped. "We share a pulse, remember? You let me crash, you crash with me."

He was right and I hated that he was right.