KIERA'S POV
The museum hallway spins. Kiera's head feels like someone drove a spike through it. Her vision blurs and sharpens and blurs again. The alarms are screaming but she can barely hear them over the sound of her own heartbeat. Except it's not just her heartbeat. It's doubled. It's wrong. It's coming from somewhere outside her body but also inside it.
She doesn't have time to figure out what's happening because the guards are coming.
She hears their boots before she sees them. Heavy footsteps. Multiple sets. At least four, maybe more. Their weapons are charged. Their voices are shouting orders. The Imperial Museum's security doesn't mess around and she's just broken the most valuable artifact the Emperor owns.
Kiera pushes herself up from the floor. Her hand is glowing. The Heartstone has embedded itself directly into her palm, pulsing with blue light under her skin like something alive. Like something watching her.
The stranger is already moving. The man in the combat armor. The one with the gold eyes who grabbed her wrist like she was stealing his destiny. He catches her elbow without breaking stride and pulls her toward the nearest exit.
"This way," he says.
His voice cuts through the chaos in her head. Deep. Commanding. The kind of voice that makes people listen without thinking about it. Kiera follows because she doesn't have a choice. Because running with him feels right in a way that nothing else does anymore.
They burst through a set of service doors and into a wider hallway. The guards are maybe thirty meters behind them now. Closing the distance. Kiera's hand is throbbing where the Heartstone is embedded in her skin but the pain is nothing compared to the other sensation.
She can feel him.
Not in a normal way. Not like she can see him or hear him. But she knows exactly where he is without looking. She knows he's slightly to her left. She knows his heartbeat is as fast as hers. She knows he's scared but he's trying to hide it. She knows all of this the way she knows her own body.
It's impossible and terrifying and impossible again.
A blaster bolt sizzles past her ear. The heat from it burns her skin. Kiera doesn't slow down. She and the stranger turn a corner at the exact same moment without communicating. They run down a hallway that leads to the exhibition wing. His hand stays locked around her elbow and she realizes he's guiding her. Leading her away from the guards. Keeping her alive.
Why is he keeping her alive?
They burst through glass doors that open into the main exhibition hall. The display case is wrecked. The pressure sensors are smoking. The Heartstone is gone because it's in her hand. Around them, guards are positioning themselves. There are more of them now. At least fifteen. Maybe twenty.
Kiera's breath catches. They're boxed in.
But the stranger doesn't panic. He pulls her toward him and she suddenly understands what's about to happen. Before she can ask what he's doing, he's already moving. His hand comes up with a blaster she didn't even know he was carrying. He fires at the guards on the right while pushing her left.
Kiera doesn't think. She doesn't plan. She just moves.
Her body knows what to do. Her fingers curl around a piece of broken display case and she throws it at the guard closest to them. It catches him in the shoulder and he stumbles. Another guard tries to circle around them but the stranger is already there. He fights with precision and efficiency. Every move is designed to disable rather than kill. Every strike is placed perfectly.
And Kiera realizes she's doing the same thing.
When a guard lunges at her, she sidesteps without thinking. Her foot comes up and catches him in the chest. He flies backward like something has thrown him. She's never been this strong. She's never moved this fast. The Heartstone is making her something more than human.
But it's not just her.
She can feel him moving through the bond. She can sense where he's going before he goes there. When a guard tries to shoot him, she's already moving to block the shot. When she needs backup, he's already beside her with his weapon ready. They move like two halves of the same person. Like their bodies have been training together for years.
It's beautiful and terrifying and completely wrong.
"The roof," he shouts over the chaos.
The ceiling of the exhibition hall is glass. Expensive glass. Reinforced glass designed to keep the museum's treasures safe from the sky. But nothing is safe anymore. The stranger grabs her hand and they run toward the center of the hall. The guards are shouting. The alarms are screaming. The Heartstone in her palm is burning hot.
He jumps. She jumps beside him. His arm wraps around her waist and they crash through the glass together. The night air of Aurion Prime hits her like a punch. For a second they're falling. For a second Kiera thinks they're going to die.
Then they land on a security speeder below.
The stranger's fingers fly over the controls and the engine roars to life. They peel away from the museum just as more guards pour out onto the roof. Blaster fire erupts. Red bolts of energy chase them through the neon streets. The speeder weaves between buildings and around corners. The city blurs around them.
Kiera's heart is pounding. Her hand is still glowing. The bond between her and this stranger is getting stronger. She can feel his relief. She can feel his adrenaline. She can feel his absolute determination to get them away from the Imperial Museum and toward somewhere safe.
She doesn't know his name. She doesn't know who he is. But she knows his heartbeat. She knows the exact moment he's going to turn left or right. She knows that if anything happened to him, something would break inside her that she couldn't fix.
The realization makes her want to scream.
"We need to split up," she says.
The words are barely out of her mouth before pain lances through her skull. White hot. Unbearable. It's like something is ripping her from the inside out. She gasps and the stranger immediately reaches for her.
"What's wrong?" he demands.
"I have to go left. We need to separate. We need to—"
She turns the speeder's wheel left. Her body is screaming at her to run. To get away. To put distance between herself and this stranger and find somewhere safe to think about what just happened.
The pain gets worse.
It's not in her head anymore. It's in her chest. In her bones. In every cell of her body. It's like someone is ripping her apart from the inside. Like her body is being torn in two different directions. Kiera cries out and the speeder lurches.
"Stop," the stranger commands. "Stop the speeder now."
"I can't stay with you," she gasps. "You don't understand. I work alone. I always work alone. I can't—"
She tries to open the door. She tries to jump out. She tries to do anything except stay bonded to this man who grabbed her crystal and ruined her life.
The pain explodes.
It's worse than anything she's ever felt. Worse than the time she broke three ribs during a job. Worse than the time Zara beat her for failing a mission. Worse than anything physical pain has ever made her feel. The bond is screaming at her. Pulling at her. Refusing to let her go.
Kiera collapses back into the speeder seat. She can't breathe. Her body feels like it's going to split open. Tears are running down her face and she hates it. She hates being this weak. She hates needing someone to survive.
The stranger brings the speeder to a stop in an abandoned alley. He's looking at her with something that might be panic in those gold eyes.
"What's happening?" he asks.
"I don't know," Kiera gasps. "When we try to separate. When we get more than a few meters apart. It feels like..."
"Like dying," he finishes.
She looks at him and nods. The Heartstone is still glowing in her palm. Still pulsing. Still connecting them in some way she doesn't understand.
"I was supposed to steal it and disappear," Kiera says. Her voice breaks. "I was supposed to get my freedom and never look back."
The stranger studies her for a long moment. Then he reaches out slowly. Carefully. Like he's approaching a wild animal that might bite. His fingers brush against the glowing Heartstone in her palm.
The moment they touch, the pain stops.
The bond stops screaming. It settles into something almost peaceful. Something warm. Kiera's breathing slows. The panic fades. In its place is something she doesn't want to name. Something that feels too much like relief. Too much like coming home.
"My name is Dante," he says quietly. "And I think we're stuck together."
Kiera stares at their joined hands. At the Heartstone glowing between them. At the man who ruined everything and somehow saved her life in the same moment.
"Kiera," she whispers.
"We should get somewhere safe," Dante says. "Somewhere we can figure out what this thing is doing to us."
Kiera nods. She doesn't trust him. She doesn't trust anyone. But the bond is forcing her to rely on him and the worst part is that part of her doesn't want to let go of his hand.
In the distance, sirens wail through the streets of Aurion Prime.
And somewhere out there, Zara Vex is probably laughing.