Chapter 37 · The Memory Cage

Elias caught my wrist before I could drive the blade into the black glass.

The knife stopped a breath from his chest.

His fingers locked around me, hot and hard, while the curse under his skin pulsed against my palm. Pain jumped through our binding and punched straight behind my eyes.

“Let go.”

“Not while you’re trying to kill the only thing keeping Finn alive.”

“You said the cage would open.” I shoved against him. “You said you could get him out.”

“I said I’d try.”

“Try harder.”

The glass wall shuddered. Shapes moved behind it—dozens of pale faces trapped in the grid’s memory field. Some were crying. Some were smiling. None of them looked at us.

Finn stood somewhere inside that crowd.

Or what was left of him did.

Elias pulled my wrist down and stepped between me and the cage. His shoulder brushed mine. He was too close, close enough for me to feel his breath against my cheek when he spoke.

“If you cut the heart-node, the cage collapses,” he said. “Every mind inside goes with it.”

“Then stop talking and fix it.”

His mouth tightened.