Chapter 24 · Gates of the Drowned Sun

"Keep your hand off the glass, Lyra!" Cassian caught her wrist as three perimeter turrets snapped open above them.

The metal barrels tracked their chests. Red targeting dots crawled over Cassian's coat, then settled on Lyra's throat.

She twisted hard. "Let go."

"Those guns don't care if you're blind."

"Good. Maybe they'll shoot the one dragging me around like a prisoner."

Cassian shoved her behind him. The move put his back against the warded gate and her body against his shoulder. Her braid brushed his jaw. He felt the heat of her through two layers of soaked fabric, quick and sharp, like she had carried a live wire under her skin.

"You want to die?" he asked.

"Not today. Move."

"You're standing in a kill zone."

"Then stop blocking the only door out."

A thin chime rang through the chamber.

The targeting dots turned white.

Cassian's fingers tightened around her wrist. "You have ten seconds."

Lyra's chin lifted. Her milky eyes aimed somewhere near his mouth, close enough to make his pulse jump for a reason he refused to examine.

"Ten seconds for what?"

"To open that airlock."

"And if I don't?"

"The turrets vaporize us.