Another gravity pulse rocks the floor. Mia screams something deeply offensive in the distance. Sebastian fires another shot.
Cason grabs the front of my shirt, bunching the fabric in his fist and forcing my attention back to him. “Reese—”
“Go!”
My shadows briefly curl around his wrist, protective and possessive. And terrified.
But now that I know that Malcolm planned so much of this, right down to Cason’s Ascension, I don’t think Malcolm wants his nephew dead. I don’t knowwhatthe fuck he wants, but right now, my priority is getting all of my people out of here alive. Cason first. But everyone else too.
“You stop whatever the fuck he’s doing,” I say. “I’ll keep anyone from following you, then I’ll be right behind you.”
Cason stares at me for one long second.
Another explosion rattles the lobby.
He hauls me closer by the front of my shirt, his eyes wild and electric. “I swear to fuck, Reese,” he growls, “you better not fucking die again.”
Then he shoves away from me and runs.
I don’t want toleave Reese behind.
Thatis the worst part.
I don’t give a fuck about the fighting or the shouting or the blood. Not even the fact that Bellrose Institute currently sounds like a warzone behind me as I sprint down one of the lower corridors.
I might care a little that the installation my father loved so much is destroyed.
However, every instinct I have is screaming at me to turn around and go back. To make sure he’s still breathing, still alive. And, yet, underneath that panic is something else. Something heavier. A feeling I can’t shake that this, whatever the fuck this is…
It was always supposed to end with me standing in front of Malcolm Bellrose alone.
Apparently, I’m still being psychologically manipulated by fate.
The hallways down here are different from the upper levels, less decorative and performative. The pretty white stone andglass give way to reinforced walls, exposed wiring, and steel doors with biometric locks. It has a distinct smell down here, like dust and metal.
The guts of the Institute.
My fingertips brush the wall as I move, and systems bloom open inside my head. Cameras, security routes, locked doors. I don’t stop running as I mentally hack my way through them. One by one, doors unlock ahead of me with sharp mechanical clicks before I even reach them.
An alarm flashes suddenly across my vision.
MOTION DETECTED.
RESTRICTED SECTOR BREACH.
“Oh, no,” I mutter flatly without slowing down. “Not my restricted sector privileges.”
Footsteps echo ahead, fast ones. I skid across the tile floor as someone rounds the corner in front of me. I immediately know he’s one of Malcolm’s Ascended. I may not have those files I downloaded in my mind anymore, but I remember a few things.
Trent something. Male, mid-thirties. Some power that isn’t much of a threat, confirmed by the fact that he already has a gun raised and aimed at me.
“Stop!” he shouts.
“How about not?”
I throw electricity at him before the last word is out of my mouth. It hits harder than I mean for it to.Wayharder. The current explodes through him in a violent flash of blue-white light. His body jerks once, then slams backward into the wall hard enough to fucking crack it.
The smell hits immediately.
