Chapter 27 · Shattered Resonance

"Don't touch the door!" Julian slammed Kael's hand against the iron bars before his fingers reached the latch.

Kael's shoulder hit the cage wall. Pain shot down his arm. Julian stood inches away, one hand locked around Kael's wrist, the other braced beside his head. His skin felt cold enough to burn.

"You dragged me into a cellar and locked me in a cage," Kael said. "Now you're worried about a door?"

"I'm worried about what opens it."

"That makes two of us. Let go."

Julian's gray eyes dropped to Kael's mouth for half a second. Then they snapped back up.

"You still have the knife?"

"You searched me twice."

"Answer me."

"No."

Julian tightened his grip. The bones under his skin gave a faint, ugly click.

Kael glanced at Julian's hand. Ivory veins had spread from the knuckles to the wrist. The curse was climbing faster than it had upstairs.

"If you're going to break my arm," Kael said, "do it now. I have patients waiting."

"Your patients are dead."

"Then stop wasting my time."

A bell rang beneath the floor.

Not metal. Not human.

The sound came through the stones in a deep pulse.