Chapter 5 · Stay

"I stay."

Cassian says it against my ear, low, like he's daring the word to be wrong. His forearm's a bar across my ribs, pinning me to the cold steel beam, and somewhere past his shoulder the warehouse door is screaming on its hinges. Not creaking. Screaming. Metal getting peeled back by something that isn't patient.

"Get off me," I say, except it comes out shaky, because his hand's flat against my sternum and I can feel my own heart slamming into his palm like it's trying to get to him instead of away.

"Hunters don't knock, Sloane." His mouth's so close I feel the words before I hear them. "They're already in the loading bay."

"So let go and let me help."

"Help who? You're the one they're here for."

That lands wrong. Cold, straight through the ribs he's already got pinned. "What?"

He doesn't answer. Doesn't have to. His phone's still lit in his other hand, some voice on the other end cut off mid-word when he crushed the call. I heard enough before that.