Chapter 16 · The Day She Can't Remember

"Take your hand off the panel, Nora."

Elias caught her wrist before her fingers touched the silver controls.

The grid chamber shook hard enough to throw dust from the ceiling. Red symbols raced across the walls. Each one flashed, then vanished. Somewhere above them, people were screaming names they could no longer remember.

Nora twisted against Elias's grip. "Let go."

"No."

"That wasn't a request."

"Good. I wasn't asking."

His thumb pressed against the inside of her wrist. Warm skin. Hard pulse. The bond between them answered with a sharp burn under her ribs.

Nora drove her elbow toward his jaw. Elias turned just in time. Her strike clipped his cheek instead of breaking his teeth.

He shoved her back against the control column.

The metal bit through her coat. His body blocked the only exit, one hand still locked around her wrist, the other braced beside her head.

"You touch that panel," he said, close enough that his breath warmed her cheek, "and the purge finishes. Every memory in Grayharbor gets scrubbed clean."

"Finn is inside the grid."

"I know."

"Then move."

"Not until you tell me what you saw."

A pulse of blue light cracked across the chamber.