Chapter 6 · You could have asked

"You could have asked."

"I did. You hit me."

"You grabbed me first."

"Because you were standing over me with a knife."

"Because I had already put it in you."

"You are making my point."

The street ended at a barricade of iron spikes and burning ward lamps. Beyond it, the city gate was sealed by a slab of black stone.

Mara stopped short.

"The gate is closed."

"I can see that."

"You said the clinic."

"There is another way."

"If you say sewer, I am killing you myself."

"Not a sewer. A bell tower."

"That is worse."

Riven caught her hand and pulled her toward a narrow passage between two boarded shops.

Mara jerked free. "Don't touch me."

"Then keep up."

"You don't get to order me around because you are bleeding."

"I get to order you around because I know what is coming."

She followed anyway.

The passage narrowed. Riven had to turn sideways to fit around a collapsed stack of crates. Mara went first, her coat catching on a nail.