Chapter 57 · The Heir's Target

I shoved Lucas away first. "I hate her."

"Yeah," he said. "She likes you."

"She likes watching you suffer."

"That too."

The elevator doors opened beneath the broadcast tower.

Nora stood behind a barricade of broken equipment, one hand clamped around a portable transmitter. Her eyes dropped to my bloodstained clothes, then to the wound soaking through Lucas's shirt.

"You two look terrible."

"Your welcome needs work," Lucas said.

"Your family is shooting at the building." Nora lifted the transmitter. "I think I've earned the right to be rude."

A blast slammed into the outer wall.

The tower lurched beneath our feet. Metal shrieked somewhere above us, and dust rained from the ceiling.

Nora pointed down the access hall. "The black gate. That's the blood lock."

Lucas stepped in front of me. "Open it."

"It won't take the crest alone. It needs a Vale command signature."

He raised the badge he'd taken from my hand. "This one was revoked."

"Then we're trapped."

"No."

Lucas reached beneath his collar and pulled out a silver crest on a thin chain.

I hadn't seen it before.