Varn was too quiet.
"Three tolls. They really want us dead," Kael muttered, sticking close to the wall.
Rei didn't look back. "They don't toll the Blood Bell unless they think something's loose that shouldn't be."
"Guess that makes us monsters now."
"Speak for yourself," she said. "I've always been a monster."
They turned into a side alley. Signs were slanted and windows shuttered. The city looked like it had stopped breathing.
Kael glanced at her. "You think they know what we took?"
"No," she said. "But they know who. That's worse."
A patrol passed nearby. They froze, ducking behind a collapsed kiosk.
"You ever feel like the city's watching?" Kael whispered.
"All the time," Rei replied. "But tonight it's different. The Watchers aren't blinking."
They waited until the footsteps faded, then slipped into a narrow drainage tunnel beneath a cracked statue. The walls pulsed faintly with bioluminescent mold.
"This your brilliant shortcut?" Kael asked, stepping into ankle-deep water.
"Better than getting shot in the head," she replied. "Northern gate's closed. They're locking down sectors. Only way out is the Rot Path."
"Seriously?"
"Unless you want to go say hi to the Sentinels on the bridge."
Kael didn't answer. He just followed her into the dark.
After a long silence, he said, "Back there… when we touched the core… you felt that, right?"
"Felt like it was peeling my mind open and rummaging through it."
He exhaled. "Thought I was the only one."
"Nope. You just screamed louder."
They turned a corner. The tunnel narrowed.
"You think this thing inside me is waking up?" Kael asked.
Rei stopped walking.
"It already has."
A sound echoed behind them. Wet. Metallic. Fast.
She spun. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah. I hate that I did."
Then came the glow.
Red lights low to the ground. Four of them. Then six. Then eight.
Kael's voice dropped. "Those aren't patrols."
"Nope," Rei said. "Vein Hounds."
"Run?"
"Run."
They took off.
The creatures skittered through the tunnel with unnatural speed. Half metal, half muscle, all murder. They didn't bark. They didn't growl. Just moved.
Kael shouted, "Why do they move like that?"
"Because they're not made to chase. They're made to end."
One lunged. Rei whipped a flashbomb over her shoulder. It burst behind them in a flood of white light.
"Did that help?"
"Do you hear them slowing down?"
"No."
"Then no."
At the next fork, Rei yelled, "Split!"
"What?"
"Now!"
She veered left.
Kael didn't think, just turned right.
"Hope this was a good idea!" he shouted.
"Me too!" she shouted back.
Two hounds followed Kael, claws slicing sparks off stone as they closed in.
He pushed harder, chest burning, breath ragged.
"Stupid idea. Stupid girl. Stupid core."
The tunnel ended in a chamber with a pool at the center. He skidded to a stop.
Behind him, claws scraped louder.
Kael turned.
The hounds lunged.
"Come on then," he growled, raising his hand.
A light cracked from his palm. Red. Wild. Like flame if flame had nerves. It snapped forward and hit the first hound mid-air.
It shattered against the far wall in pieces.
The second hit him before he could react.
He slammed to the ground, metal claws raking his coat. Pain flared. He grabbed its jaw with both hands, pushing.
"Get off me!"
The core flared.
A shockwave burst from his chest. Pressure. Heat. Something deeper.
The hound flew backward, hit the wall, didn't move again.
Kael groaned, rolled to his knees, breathing hard.
"You alive?" came Rei's voice from the tunnel.
He looked up. "Define alive."
She entered the chamber, looked at the wreckage.
"Damn," she muttered. "You really don't hold back."
"I didn't mean to. It just happened."
"Do it again."
"I don't know how."
She walked past him, inspecting the hounds. "Sensors will pick that up."
"Yeah," he said. "That blast was loud."
"Not just loud. Tracked. You lit up half the grid."
He stood slowly. "Then we keep moving."
Back in the tunnels, their pace quickened.
Kael broke the silence. "You weren't surprised."
"What?"
"When I blew that thing apart."
"I wasn't."
"Why?"
Rei looked at him, serious now. "Because I saw what you did to the vault door. You didn't just break it. You melted through reinforced veinstone like it was paper. I knew then the core had bound to you."
He frowned. "You didn't say anything."
"I didn't want you panicking."
"Too late."
They surfaced near the industrial quarter. The streets here were empty, old warehouses looming like tombstones.
Kael leaned on a rail, looking out at the far edge of the city.
Beyond the cracked wall lay the Rot Path.
Rei stood beside him. "You ever been out there?"
"No."
"Scared?"
"Yes."
She smiled. "Good. Means you're still human."
He chuckled weakly. "That's debatable."
"We get through the Rot Path, we'll have a shot at reaching the ruins."
"And then?"
"And then we figure out why that core chose you."
Kael looked at his hand again.
The veins still glowed faintly.
He whispered, "I didn't choose it."
"No," Rei said. "But it might've chosen you for a reason."
They climbed the broken wall, one after the other, leaving the city behind.
Behind them, Varn's warning bells kept ringing.
But ahead of them, the Rot Path waited.