He leaned close enough that his breath fanned over my lips. “Because you’re mine.”
Heat burned through the bond along with his affection.
The human who’d hit him lifted his rifle again, but Zuko didn’t even look. He just grabbed the rifle barrel and snapped it in half.
I surged forward and slammed the human’s head into the wall.
The man dropped limp.
I grabbed Zuko’s collar and yanked him closer, fury and relief tangling into something that felt too much like need. “You’re an idiot.”
He laughed. “If saving you from even a second of pain makes me an idiot, then fine. I’m an idiot.”
Fates, I wanted to kiss him.
Koa’s voice cut in, strained. “I can’t stabilize everyone if you two make out in the hallway.”
I released Zuko with a curse, shoving him toward the exit. “Don’t you have a scientist to torture?”
He blanched. “Shit. Yes!”
I bit my lip to contain an amused giggle as he ran toward the bloodied scientist slumped against the wall.
We managed to get the last group of supernaturals into the front lobby with ten minutes to spare. Ivy and Solon shoved the door wide open, letting cold air spill in.
“Go!” Ivy shouted. “Move, move, move!”
Solon grabbed a stumbling kelpie and hauled them forward. “Keep your head down.”
Outside, I could hear distant alarms wailing.
Slater’s voice came in again. “Facility’s security grid is collapsing. I’ve hacked into most of the doors, but the central server room is trying to lock down.”
Dimitri’s gaze snapped toward a side corridor. “That’s where their data is.”
“If they lock down, they’ll preserve supernatural records and experimental notes. We can’t let them have that data,” Katie murmured.
Zuko laughed darkly. “I like the way you think.”
“Ivy, Solon, keep the evacuation of supernaturals moving,” Katie ordered. “Rune and Dimitri, go with Zuko. Wipe all of their data.”
Dimitri squeezed my hand once. “Stay behind me.”
I snorted. “As if.”
We ran, and Zuko dragged the half-conscious human scientist along by the collar as we listened to Katie’s directions.
The side corridor narrowed into a tech-heavy section with server panels embedded in the walls, keypads blinking, and red emergency lights beginning to strobe.
Everything was hacked into and opened by Slater until we reached the server room door.
That was locked with a biometric panel.
Zuko dragged his captured scientist forward. “Open it.”
The scientist shook his head violently. “I—I can’t?—”
“I’m going to make you then,” he said cheerfully.
