Chapter 24 · Make Him Fall First

The door didn't open. It came apart, hinges screaming off the stone, and two of Varen's men were through the gap before the splinters even hit the floor.

Kael moved first. He didn't reach for a blade. He grabbed her wrist and hauled her behind the toppled table like she weighed nothing, and the shard—her shard, the phoenix bone still smoking where the fire had eaten through her sleeve—skittered across the stone between them, still burning that image into the air.

Her hand. Only her hand, buried in his chest, no dagger, no fire, just fingers closing around something that shouldn't come out that easily.

"Stand down." Kael's voice cracked out over the noise, the commander voice, the one that made men freeze before they had time to think about it. "This is my chamber. Get out."

"Sir." One of them actually hesitated. The other didn't. "Commander Varen's orders. If the room's compromised—"

"The room isn't compromised." Kael stepped in front of Seraph like that settled it. Blood soaked through his shirt where the fire had kissed his sternum, and he didn't look down at it once. "I am. Not her."

Seraph's stomach dropped clean through the floor.

"Sir—