Chapter 46 · The Fifth Mark

"Get your hand off me, Dax." His fingers tightened around my wrist before the red eye could finish opening.

"Stop fighting the chamber."

"Then stop pinning me to the floor."

"I'm not pinning you. I'm keeping you from stepping into the mark."

The black circle under my boots split open. Red letters crawled across the stone, one after another, fast enough to make my eyes hurt. The chamber had stopped being a room. Walls folded inward. Chains of glowing script hung from the ceiling and dragged across the floor, hunting for my ankles.

Dax hauled me against his chest and shoved us both behind the broken oath-core.

A pulse slammed through the chamber.

My palm burned.

"Mara." His voice dropped. "Look at me."

"I'm looking at the thing trying to peel my skin off."

"Look at me."

I did. That was the mistake.

His face was too close. Blood had dried along his jaw, and the cut above his eyebrow had opened again. His breath hit my cheek, hot and uneven. One arm locked around my waist while his other hand trapped mine against the stone.

The red eye formed above us.

It blinked.

Every oath in the undercity answered.