Chapter 9 · The Blood Pact Bites Back

The red lines snapped tight around my wrists.

I hit the floor on one knee, my injured palm slamming into the glowing stone. Heat tore through my bones.

"Seraphina! Get your hand off the array!"

Calian caught my shoulder and yanked me back. The movement ripped his shirt open over the knife wound. Fresh blood spilled down his side, dark against the white fabric.

"Let go of me."

"Not while it's using you as the anchor."

"You said the pact was already damaged."

"It is."

"Then why is it listening to you?"

His jaw locked. Red light crawled up his throat, following the black veins the blood pact had left beneath his skin.

The captured lord laughed from the iron chair at the edge of the array. Chains pinned his arms behind him, but he looked far too comfortable for a man waiting to be questioned.

"Because she moved the command line into the bond," he called. "Now neither of you gets to stand outside it."

Calian shoved me behind him.

"Keep your mouth shut."

"You should have killed me before she touched the anchor, Archduke. That was your mistake."

I pushed around Calian's arm.