I don’t turn around. “Stark left a worm in the code. Something’s coming. I don’t know what—but it’s coming.”
He crosses the room in two strides, leaning over my shoulder, heat radiating off him like engine wash.
“Explain.”
I do. Fast. Clipped. No time for fluff.
When I finish, he exhales hard. “And the Alliance?”
“Dragging their feet.”
Kaz’s hand finds the back of his neck. A familiar tic. He’s doing calculations in his head. Flight paths. Burn rates. Escape vectors.
“Nova,” he says finally, “we’re not waiting for permission, are we?”
I look up.
“No,” I whisper. “We have to fix what he started.”
He nods once, sharp and certain. “Then we’re going back to the gate.”
I rise to my feet. “We don’t have clearance. We’ll be violating five major fleet protocols just byenteringthe relay chamber.”
Kaz grins without humor. “I’m Vakutan. Breaking rules is a genetic impulse.”
I grab the drive chip from the console and shove it into my belt pocket. “You realize this might kill us.”
He shrugs, stepping closer. “What, again?”
His hand brushes mine. Brief. Charged. Like lightning bottled between skin.
We move as one.
Out of the room.
Down the corridor.
No words now. Just footsteps, breath, urgency.
The lights flicker once overhead.
The storm’s coming.
And we’re the only ones with a map.
CHAPTER 47
KAZ
The lift drops like it’s been cut loose from gravity, plunging us down the spire’s central shaft at gut-clenching speed. My fingers wrap around the rail, knuckles pale against golden scales. Nova stands across from me, one hand braced against the wall, her jaw clenched so hard I can see the muscle twitch.
We’re silent.
There’s no time for speeches.
No air for fear.
The control center sits like a buried god at the core of the research base—sealed behind enough security layers to keep a Reaper war pack at bay. But the system knows us now. Or maybe it’s just scared.
