I stumble back a step, caught off guard.
“You don’t get to decide this,” she snaps. “You don’t get to leave me out of this fight.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“I didn’taskyou to protect me.”
“Iloveyou,” I say, and it breaks something in the air between us.
She goes still.
The silence rings louder than an explosion.
“I love you,” I say again, softer. “That means I will burn this city to the ground before I let it take you.”
“And I love you,” she says, her voice shaking. “Which means I won’t let you make me watch you die.”
She steps closer.
We’re toe to toe now.
“This isn’t survival,” she says. “This is surrender dressed up in hero bullshit. And I’m not letting you go out like that.”
“I don’t see another option.”
“Then we make one.”
“Kim—”
“No. You don’t get to pull the trigger on this and call it mercy. We either walk out together or we don’t walk out at all.”
The words land like a punch.
I close my eyes.
Breathe.
Her hand finds mine. Trembles there. Fingers tight.
“We survive,” she says. “Or we burn together. Pick one.”
I open my eyes.
Press my forehead to hers.
“Together,” I whisper.
“Good,” she says, breathless.
Beneath our feet, the node pulses.
Once.
Then again.
A low rumble begins in the walls, like a beast waking up pissed and ancient.
“What’s happening?” she asks.
