Chapter 31 · The Third Door

"Don't touch the seal." Kael caught my wrist before my fingers reached the black line cut across the altar.

His grip was hot. Too hot for a man who had nearly died less than an hour ago.

I twisted hard. "Let go."

"You heard me."

"I also heard you call me by a name only one person knows. Then you nearly bled out in front of an execution block. We're past polite warnings."

Kael pulled me back against his chest. The movement shoved my shoulder into the stone pillar behind me. His breath brushed my ear, uneven but controlled. The poison had left a gray edge around his mouth, yet his hand still locked around me like iron.

"You're not Seraph," he said.

I stopped fighting for half a second.

His thumb pressed against the inside of my wrist. He felt the pulse there. He knew it was mine. He had always been frighteningly good at noticing small things.

"That's your accusation?" I asked. "After I burned half my soul out to keep you alive?"

"Answer me."

"No."

His jaw tightened. "No, you aren't Seraph?"

"No, I won't answer you while you're pinning me to a wall like a criminal."