Chapter 23 · True Bond

The floor split behind them, and half the ceiling came down where the Arbiter's voice had been a second earlier.

"Faster." Cade's hand clamped around Mika's wrist and hauled her over a fallen beam like she weighed nothing. "Pod's forty meters. Don't stop."

"Working on it." Her legs felt like wet paper. Blood ran hot down her arm and dripped off her fingers in a line that wouldn't quit.

The Arbiter's voice cut through the alarms behind them, flat, furious, closer than it should've been. "Native Bond resurrection. That is not possible. Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

She didn't turn around to answer him. "Ask them." She meant the three Bonded sprinting ahead of her, gold light crawling under their skin where silver used to sit. "They're not your subjects anymore."

"They're my property." His hand snapped up, silver threads spilling out of his palm, reaching for the spine of the closest runner.

Mika's stomach dropped. She didn't think about it.