Chapter 15 · Glitch in the Code

"Don't move, and maybe I won't blow your head off right here," Zero hissed, the cold muzzle of her pulse-pistol digging into the soft skin behind Kael's ear.

Kael froze. He didn't fight. He didn't even breathe. He just stared at the rusted metal wall of the hideout, his reflection warped and trembling in the grime.

"You're shaking," he whispered. His voice was thin, stripped of its usual academic confidence. "Is it the pain, Zero? Or are you actually starting to feel something?"

Zero slammed him forward, pinning his chest against the corrugated steel with a sudden, violent force. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and she leaned in close—too close. He could smell the ozone and sterile chemicals clinging to her skin, the scent of a laboratory that never slept.

"Shut up," she spat, her voice cracking. "You built this. You wrote the code that makes my nerves feel like they're being flayed open every time I blink. You don't get to ask about my feelings."

Kael let out a sharp, ragged laugh. "I didn't build the pain. Victor did. I just... I tried to make the weapon stable."

"Stable?" Zero's grip tightened on the gun.