Chapter 20 · Blood Run

"Get the hell away from me, Kael!"

Zero's voice was a shredded rasp, barely audible over the roar of the collapsing bulkhead. She was pinned against a jagged shard of blackened alloy, her left arm twisted at an angle that made my stomach churn. Blood—too much of it, a shimmering, iridescent violet—was pooling around her hips, soaking into the scorched fabric of her tactical suit.

"Shut up and let me move you," I snapped, lunging forward.

I didn't care about the sparks showering down from the ceiling or the fact that the air tasted like ozone and burnt plastic. I grabbed her shoulder, and she let out a sound that wasn't a scream—it was a glitch. A sharp, digital screech that ripped through the neural link we shared, vibrating in the back of my teeth.

"I can't—" she gasped, her eyes blown wide, pupils flickering like a dying lightbulb. "The override... it's locking my joints. I'm a trap, Kael. Just go."

"I'm not leaving you in a goddamn furnace," I growled. I jammed my shoulder under her arm, trying to heave her upward.

She fought me. Not with strength, but with the rigid, mindless resistance of a machine in lockdown.