Chapter 32 · Blood Before Vows

"Take your hand off the seal, Seraph." Kael caught her wrist before her fingers touched the split altar. "If you tear it open now, the anchor will eat your phoenix core before it finishes screaming."

"Then let go."

"No."

His grip tightened. Heat burned through her glove. The cracked altar shoved red light between them, pulsing like a living wound. Behind Kael, the fire wall climbed higher, cutting off the only door. Beyond it, seven bells waited in the dark.

Seven cities. One anchor. One old ending that had killed her seventeen times.

Seraph twisted hard. Kael moved with her, stepping into her space and pinning her wrist against the black stone. His shoulder blocked the altar. His breath brushed her cheek, hot and sharp with smoke.

"You have three seconds to explain," she said. "After that, I break your fingers."

"You have two minutes before the anchor takes the first piece of you."

"That wasn't an explanation."

"It was a warning."

"You always confuse those."

His gray eyes dropped to her mouth for half a second. Then they snapped back to hers. "And you always confuse dying with winning.