Chapter 30 · You can complain after we're alive

He pulled her toward the side door. "You can complain after we're alive."

"That's your whole leadership strategy?"

"It has a better survival rate than yours."

They cleared the doorway as the room behind them folded inward. The dead woman didn't run. She stood in the center of the collapsing containment floor, watching Selah.

"Ask him who the first bearer was!" she called.

The door slammed shut between them.

Selah and Kane hit the corridor at a sprint.

The bond made every turn ugly. If he pulled ahead, pain hooked under her ribs. If she slowed, the same pain tore through his chest. They moved shoulder to shoulder, boots striking the metal floor in uneven rhythm.

"You knew her," Selah said.

"No."

"Bad lie."

"I knew of her."

"Better lie. Still a lie."

A burst of energy tore through the wall ahead. Kane shoved Selah down and threw up one hand.

Gold light spread across the corridor.

The blast hit it and broke into sparks.

Kane staggered.

Selah caught his coat. "How long can you hold that?"

"Long enough."

"That wasn't my question."

"Twenty seconds."

"You said long enough."

"I was being optimistic.