Page 170 of Fractured Loyalties
"Not yet."
"Elias, please."
Her voice breaks. And something in me does too.
I get up and we stagger to the door together. I slam the override code. The steel barrier opens.
An elevator shaft. Old, narrow, barely functional. I shove Mara inside. Kinley follows. I hit the panel. It groans to life.
The doors seal.
Silence.
Only the distant echo of gunfire fading.
My knees buckle. I hit the floor.
Mara kneels beside me, both hands bloody. Her voice is shaking.
"You idiot."
I manage a smirk. "Takes one to love one."
Her eyes brim, but she doesn’t look away.
I reach up, fingers grazing her jaw.
"You should've left me."
"Too late."
The elevator shudders upward, each floor passing like a beat of some slow, inevitable heart.
Above us: temporary safety.
Below us: Volker’s trap still bleeding in the dark.
Beside me: the only thing I can't protect from myself.
Mara.
And I’m not sure if I’m rescuing her.
Or dragging her further into the place I belong.
Where the ties don’t just bind.
They burn.
A burst of static crackles in my ear, sharp and sudden. My comm earpiece flares to life. Mara tenses beside me. Kinley stiffens.
"Elias," comes the voice. Crisp. Dry. Lydia.
I press a blood-slicked finger to the side of my head. "We’re en route. Minor injury. Exit compromised. Give me status."
"Heard gunfire from my post. Your comms went silent. I considered extraction." Her voice is calm but lined with judgment. "Did you forget you had backup, or were you just too busy bleeding?"
"Focus, Lydia. What’s outside?"
