Chapter 25 · The Dream That Bleeds

The blade hit the floor before I even felt my fingers open.

"Give it back." My voice came out wrong, cracked, half smoke.

"No." Kael's hand was still locked around my wrist, and the anchor stone behind him was already splitting, a thin gold line running straight down the middle like it was bleeding light. "You don't get to use it on yourself. Not on my watch."

"You don't get a vote." I tried to twist free. My skin was too hot, hotter than it should've been, and under his palm I could feel him flinch at the heat and not let go anyway.

"Watch me."

Somewhere past the fortress walls, bells started ringing. Real ones. The wedding bells, the ones that meant guests were already filing into the chapel two floors down, meant I had maybe twenty minutes before someone came looking for the bride who was currently on fire in a war commander's private study.

"Seraph." Kael's voice dropped, low enough that it wasn't for anyone but me. "Look at your hands."

I looked. Fire was crawling up from my knuckles in thin orange threads, curling like it was deciding whether to eat the rest of me.