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?"