“I’m done listening.”
The chamber lights dimmed, alarms pulsed softly in the walls, and a circular column in the center of the room rose from the floor—white metal, humming faintly.
The override chamber.
Reese stepped backward, shaking his head. “Don’t do this. I can still bring you in. We can still fix this world.Together.”
Hawk looked at me then.
And everything inside me crashed.
“No,” I whispered. “Hawk, don’t you dare—”
He cupped the back of my neck, pulling me in so close his forehead rested against mine.
“I love you,” he breathed.
Pain tore through my chest.
“Hawk—”
“I need you to live,” he whispered. “Promise me.”
“No,” I choked. “I’m not letting you—”
But he kissed me—hard, desperate, searing—cutting off my words.
Reese shouted something behind us, but it was distant, drowned out by the sound of my heart breaking.
Hawk pulled away, eyes bright with something raw and final.
“I’m ending this,” he said.
And he stepped toward the chamber—
—but I grabbed his vest with both hands and yanked him back.
“Over my dead body,” I hissed.
Reese stared between us, stunned.
Because the system required one sacrifice.
But Julia Marlow was not designed to lose him.
Not here.
Not today.
Not ever.
The Echo Core hummed louder.
And we moved together, preparing to fight not just Reese…
but the machine that demanded one of us die.
35
