Chapter 28 · Broken Apex

"Take your hand off me, Ronin, or I swear I’ll break every finger you have."

His grip tightened around my wrist.

Not enough to hurt. Just enough to remind me that he could.

The flagship bridge lurched beneath our boots. Metal screamed somewhere below us. Through the cracked viewport, the mountain ridge spun closer, its black peak cutting through the white storm.

Ronin shoved me behind the command pillar as another blast punched the hull.

"You can threaten me after we survive," he said.

"You rejected me after we survived worse. I can multitask."

His eyes snapped to mine.

That landed. Good.

The broken mark under my collarbone burned red against my skin. His matching mark glowed through the torn edge of his uniform, gold buried under angry red lines. Every time our pulses matched, the pain doubled.

Every time they slipped apart, the bridge shook harder.

The Chancellor had built the whole flagship around that fact.

He stood on the other side of the command deck, one hand braced against the central control rail, the other wrapped around a black data drive.

"Still fighting each other," he called over the alarms. "Even now. How touching.