She hauled him over the edge.
They crashed onto the platform together. Raven landed on his back. Seraphina landed partly across him, one knee beside his hip, her gloved hand planted near his head.
For a breath, neither moved.
Her face hovered above his. Close enough for him to feel her warmth through the gap at his collar. Close enough to see the anger fighting with something less controlled in her eyes.
"Get off me," Raven said.
"You first."
"You're the one on top."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Say that again."
"I said you're blocking my lungs."
She pushed away and stood.
Raven rolled up beside her as another priest charged across the broken platform. The man carried a hooked ritual blade.
"Commander!" the priest shouted. "The condemned belongs to the Deep!"
"Get in line," Raven said.
The priest swung.
Raven caught the blade with his bare hand.
The metal sliced his palm, but the ash inside it surged toward him. The ritual markings dimmed. The priest's mouth fell open.
"No," he whispered.
"Yeah," Raven said. "That seems to be happening a lot today."
He twisted.
The blade broke in half.
ASH SYPHONING: ACTIVE
PROGRESS: 4/10
A pulse of force threw the priest across the platform. He struck a pillar and slid down, leaving a black smear behind.
Seraphina stared at Raven's hand.
The cut was already closing.
"You siphon consecrated ash," she said.
"I siphon whatever tries to kill me."
"That's forbidden."
"So is opening a rift under an execution block. Yet here we are."
She pointed her sword at his chest. "You should have been dead years ago."
"You should ask why that bothers you."
Her eyes flashed.
She grabbed the front of his coat again and drove him backward until his shoulders hit the stone wall at the edge of the platform.
The sword came up beneath his jaw.
"One more clever line," she said, "and I put you down myself."
Raven's back pressed to the wall. Her body was close again, not touching except at his coat, but close enough for the heat of her to reach him. The sword hummed against his skin.
"You keep putting your hands on me," he said.
"I keep stopping you from getting killed."
"That isn't what your face says."
Her nostrils flared.
"You don't know what my face says."
"Your face says you want to believe the charge."
"The charge was witnessed by six knights."
"Five of them were dead before I arrived. The sixth was the one who planted the seal."
"You expect me to accept that because you sound confident?"
"No. I expect you to remember the battlefield report."
She didn't answer.
"The report said my squad turned on each other," Raven continued. "It didn't say why. It didn't mention the black smoke. It didn't mention who locked the gates."
"I read the report."
"Then you read a lie."
"My brother signed that report."
Raven stopped.
Her sword pressed closer.
"Say his name," she said.
"I don't know your brother."
"You were there when he died."
"I was there when your people executed him."
Her eyes went hard.
"Careful."
"You asked."
"You saw him die?"
"I saw him dragged behind the command tent. I saw your captain bring out a clean sword. I saw the black seal on the blade."
The sword at his throat trembled once.
Raven felt it.
"He didn't die in battle," Raven said. "He was killed because he found out what the Church was feeding to the rifts."
Seraphina's face went still.
The creature beneath the platform roared again. The sound shook dust from the balcony.
Odran shouted, "Commander! Execute him! His blood is the key!"
Seraphina looked up at him. "You said he was a traitor."
"He is."
"Then why does his blood open your seal?"
Odran's smile disappeared.
Raven saw the change and smiled for him.
"There it is," he said. "The part you weren't supposed to notice."
"Quiet," Seraphina said, but the word had lost its bite.
Odran pointed toward the platform. "Do not listen to him. He has poisoned your mind. Finish the execution."
"Why is the rift reacting to him?"
"Because he carries forbidden ash."
"Who gave it to him?"
"That is not relevant."
"It is if you're using him as an offering."
The balcony guards raised their weapons.
Seraphina stepped in front of Raven.
It was a small movement. Barely half a step.
But she had put her body between him and the crossbows.
Raven stared at the back of her armor.
"Move," Odran ordered.
"No."
The word carried across the square.
Every guard on the platform looked at her.
"Commander," Odran said softly, "that was not a request."
"Then give a better order."
Raven's mouth almost curved.
Seraphina didn't look back. "Don't make that face."
"What face?"
"The one where you think we are allies."
"We're not allies."
"Good."
"You're just standing in front of me because you hate him more."
Her shoulder shifted. "Keep talking and I may let the bolts through."
"You won't."
"You are remarkably annoying for a condemned man."
"And you're remarkably protective for an executioner."
Her head turned slightly. Her eyes found his over her shoulder.
That close again. Her mouth parted, then shut.
"I'm protecting the city," she said.
"You can do both."
"Do both what?"
"Protect the city and keep me alive."
"Don't push your luck."
"Your luck is standing behind me."
She stepped backward and shoved him against the wall again, this time with her forearm across his chest.
"Listen carefully," she said. "You stay where I can see you. You do not siphon anything without warning me. You do not run. If you try, I break your legs before I cut your throat. Understand?"
Raven looked at her forearm, then at her eyes.
"You forgot the part where I say please."
"I don't say please."
"I noticed."
"Answer me."
"I understand that you need me alive."
"That's not what I asked."
"It's the only part that matters."
Her face came close enough that his cheek brushed the edge of her loosened hair. She smelled like steel, clean leather, and smoke from the broken runes.
"You think knowing my weakness gives you power," she whispered.
"Doesn't it?"
"No. It gives me a reason to keep you breathing. Power is something else."
She pulled the sword away from his throat and planted its tip against the floor beside his boot.
Then she seized his broken cuff and locked it around her own wrist.
Raven looked down.
The silver collar flashed.
A thin line of red light sprang from the cuff to the metal ring around his throat, then curled around Seraphina's wrist like a chain.
Both of them gasped.
The connection vanished almost at once, but the burn stayed.
Seraphina ripped the cuff free.
"What the hell was that?" Raven asked.
"You tell me."
"I thought you knew everything."
"I know how to kill people. I don't know how to fix cursed machinery."
"Finally, something honest."
Odran screamed, "Do not let them leave the platform!"
The guards obeyed. Two vaulted over the railing and rushed them.
Seraphina met the first head-on. Her broadsword smashed into his shield and drove him back three steps. She turned, caught the second guard's spear against her blade, and kicked his knee.
Raven grabbed a fallen bolt launcher.
"You know how to use that?" she demanded.
"Point and pull."
"Don't hit me."
"You say that like it happened before."
"Raven!"