Chapter 35 · The Letter

"Read it," the hunter said, and shoved the folded paper into my chest so hard I stumbled back into Cassian's arm. "Since your boyfriend wants to pay for something that's already sold."

Cassian's hand shot past my shoulder and ripped the paper out of my grip before I even got it unfolded. "No. You don't get to hand her a leash and call it a courtesy."

"Give it back." I grabbed for it. He turned his body, blocking me with his shoulder, eyes already moving down the page. "Cassian. That's mine. Give it back."

"Sloane." His voice had gone flat. Wrong flat. The kind of flat that comes right before someone breaks something.

I ducked under his arm and got a hand on the corner of the letter, and he let me, which scared me more than if he'd fought me for it. I smoothed it out against my own forearm because my hands were shaking too hard to hold it steady any other way.

Ethan's signature sat at the bottom, cramped and slanted the way it always got when