Chapter 38 · Before the Vows

"Don't touch the fire, Seraph."

Kael caught her wrist before her hand reached the black crystal buried in the floor.

Heat snapped across her skin. The crystal pulsed under the ash, feeding on the red light burning in her palm. Behind them, the ruined chamber groaned as another beam broke loose from the ceiling.

"Let go."

"Not until you tell me what you're doing."

"I'm ending this."

"By touching the thing that has killed you seventeen times? Great plan."

She twisted hard. Kael's grip tightened, his thumb pressing over her pulse. His other hand held the dagger she had hidden beneath her sleeve. One clean movement, and he could cut the phoenix mark from her wrist—or her throat.

He had done both before.

Not in this life. Not yet.

"You found the anchor," he said.

"You found it too. You just brought an army instead of a brain."

His eyes dropped to the crystal. The red glow painted his face, catching on the hard line of his jaw. Blood ran from his temple, disappearing beneath his collar.

"Varen is dead," he said.

"Varen is not dead."

"I watched him fall into the core."

"Then you watched the wrong part.