Chapter 58 · Bloodline Confirmed

"Put your hand on the reader, Evelyn. Now."

Lucas shoved me behind the tower console as bullets tore through the steel door.

The console slammed into my spine. Lucas planted himself between me and the door, pistol raised, blood spreading beneath his shirt at the ribs.

"You said the line was clear."

"I said Nora got us inside." He fired at the door. "I never said Command would wait politely."

Another shot cracked. The console jumped under my palm.

Nora crouched over the wiring bay. "The main broadcast line is dead. They cut it from Central."

"Can you bring it back?" I asked.

"Not without the heir port."

My fingers closed around the access key.

Lucas saw it. His eyes dropped to the key, then lifted to mine.

"You have the port."

"I have a stolen key with a dead woman's name burned into it. That's not the same thing."

"It is if you're the woman they buried."

The gunfire pounded through the tower, but I barely heard it.

Nora went still. "Lucas."

"She needs to hear it." He didn't look away from me. "The tower won't open for a fake identity. It will open for the Voss heir.