All Chapters of BOUND IN IRON AND INK: Chapter 81 - Chapter 85

GHOSTS IN THE DARK Kirrily”Rindy” Cross​The first explosion shook the earth so hard my teeth rattled against each other.​Dust, old and foul, rained down from the arched brick ceiling of the maintenance tunnel, coating my eyelashes. I blinked it away, my breathing loud and shallow in the suffocating dark. Above us, a quarter-mile away at the main gates of Pier 4, Jaxson and the Iron Skull squad were making their introduction.​Loud. Bloody. Unforgiving.​That was Jaxson’s way. He was the distraction, the roaring fire meant to pull every set of eyes toward the front door so we could slip through the cracks.​"Keep moving," Kaelen murmured.​His voice was a low vibration right behind my ear, so close I could feel the heat of his breath against my freezing skin. I swallowed hard, forcing my frozen legs to take another step into the ankle-deep, brackish water of the historic smuggler's tunnel.​"I'm moving," I whispered back, my voice trembling in a way I hated. I wanted to be brave. Fo

THE BAIT AND THE BLEEDINGJaxson​I didn't mind the blood. I never had.​In my world, blood was just a currency. It was the price you paid to keep the things that mattered, and right now, the only thing in this godforsaken world that mattered to me was underground, breathing in the dark.​The heavy recoil of my SCAR-H rifle slammed into my shoulder, a familiar, punishing rhythm. I exhaled slowly, letting the trigger reset before squeezing off another three-round burst. Down the cracked concrete expanse of Pier 4, a syndicate guard taking cover behind a rusted forklift jerked backward, his chest plate shattering as my rounds found their mark. He dropped, vanishing into the torrential rain and the shadows.​"Push the line!" I roared, my voice tearing through the deafening cacophony of gunfire and howling wind. "Do not give them an inch to breathe!"​Around me, the Iron Skulls moved with the lethal, synchronized precision that had made us a nightmare in the criminal underworld. We were a

THE ARCHITECT’S CODE Kirrily”Rindy” Cross​The water was black, freezing, and rising with the terrifying speed of a nightmare.​It was already at my waist, soaking through my heavy tactical pants, the chill sinking straight into my marrow. I pressed my hands against the massive steel blast door that had slammed down in front of us, my wet gloves slipping uselessly against the smooth, unforgiving metal.​"Kaelen!" I gasped, the air in the sealed chamber growing thin and metallic.​He didn't answer. He was entirely submerged, fighting blindly in the dark water beneath me, trying to find the manual override or a gap in the seal. The heavy rushing sound of the intake pipes drowned out the gunfire from the surface. Down here, the war didn't matter. Down here, we were just two bodies waiting for the tide to finish us.​The water hit my chest. The cold squeezed my lungs so tight I let out a pathetic, ragged wheeze. Panic, pure and animalistic, tore through my mind. I was going to die in the