Chapter 27 · Voidbound - Chapter 27: Her Finger Tightens

"Step away from him." Mira's gun was three feet from Garrick's head. The old champion sat slumped against the corridor wall, blood spreading dark across his shirt, one hand pressed to his side. The escape key lay on the ground between them, still smeared with his fingerprints.

Kael froze halfway through the doorway. "He's bleeding out."

"That's his problem." Mira didn't look at Kael. Her eyes stayed locked on Garrick, her stance textbook—feet shoulder-width, gun steady, finger outside the trigger guard but close. "How long have you been running an illegal Voidbound out of the Pits?"

Garrick coughed. It sounded wet. "You're asking the wrong guy."

"I watched you shove that key into his hand." Mira's voice dropped lower. "I watched you take a blade for him. So either you're the dumbest has-been in the circuit, or you know exactly what he's carrying."

Kael's pulse hammered in his ears. The hatchling stirred under his ribs, a cold ripple of panic that wasn't entirely his own. He could run. The exit was ten feet behind Mira.