Old coolant.
Rot.
I welcome it.
The darkness closes in around us like a blessing.
My heart is hammering so hard it hurts.
My hands are still shaking.
Her blood is still soaking into my shirt.
“Don’t do this,” I whisper to her as I run. “Don’t die. Don’t you fucking die on me now.”
She makes a soft, broken sound in her throat.
It shreds something inside me I didn’t know I had.
“Oh God,” I choke. “Hey. Hey. Look at me. Open your eyes. Just for a second.”
Her lashes flutter again.
They part.
Barely.
Her eyes are unfocused, glassy, swimming.
“Monster,” she whispers faintly, like she’s not sure the word is real.
The jalshagar explodes in my chest.
No.
“No,” I say immediately, too fast, too intense. “No. I’m not. I’m not going to hurt you. I swear to you. I swear.”
Her gaze drifts over my face like she’s trying to assemble me from broken puzzle pieces.
“…hot,” she murmurs.
I huff a broken laugh that turns into something dangerously close to a sob.
“Yeah,” I rasp. “That tracks too.”
Her eyes slide shut again.
Panic claws up my throat.
“No, no, no, stay with me,” I beg, my voice cracking wide open now. “You don’t get to clock out yet. You don’t even know my name. That would be rude as hell.”
I run harder.
The drones scream overhead again, closer this time, their shadows flickering across the alley walls.
I hook left, then right, then drop into a maintenance trench that runs under a row of derelict buildings and sprints blind for thirty meters before spitting me out behind a shuttered nightclub with a burned-out holo sign that still reads ECLIPSE in flickering purple.
I press myself flat against the wall, panting, every muscle in my body vibrating with adrenaline and pain.
