POV: Ayla

The east wing is noise and smoke when I reach it.

The command link is still open in my ear. Zane’s voice is tight, tracking three different feeds at once. Ryker is closer now, his team clearing the outer marker at a run. Caius is ahead of me in the corridor, already past the first junction, moving toward the pair that went down when the secondary charge opened a hole that should not have existed.

I was supposed to stay on the link.

The agreement holds until the bond spikes with a sharp, white flash of pain that is not mine.

Caius staggers once in the open stretch...