Page 169 of Fractured Loyalties

I lean against the wall. Briefly. Just to get my balance. My vision narrows for a second. I blink hard.

Mara steps in front of me, places a hand on my chest.

"You can't break now. Not here."

Her palm is warm.

"I won’t."

"Liar."

I grab her wrist, not hard. Just enough to feel her pulse. It’s fast. But steady.

"I’m not the one who’s changing."

Her breath catches.

"You don’t belong in this," I say. "You never did."

"You don’t get to decide what I belong in."

That stops me. A beat of silence between us, thick with things neither of us dares to admit.

Then Kinley calls back: "Ready. We move now."

We push forward again, into a corridor lined with steel-paneled walls. Overhead, a vent hums with artificial air, stale and metallic. At the far end, a large access door marked with an old clearance code. Two guards posted. Another four nearby. They haven’t seen us.

"We’re fucked," Kinley mutters.

"No," I say. "We divide their focus. I draw fire. You circle left with Mara."

"That’s suicide."

"I’m fast. You’re smarter. Use it."

I move before he can object.

I step out from cover, gun raised. I fire first. Two go down before they fully register.

Then the hallway erupts.

Bullets snap past. Alarms flare. I roll into a side niche as return fire scorches the air. Kinley grabs Mara, pulls her left through a low service tunnel. One guard follows. I track him through the vents and fire again. Blood paints the wall.

Then pain. White-hot. My shoulder burns.

I hit the floor, clutching the wound. Not deep. But messy. The blood makes my grip slippery.

Then I hear her.

"Elias!"

Mara.

She's running back. Kinley shouts behind her, but she doesn't stop.

She slides beside me, hands on my face.

"We have to go," she whispers.