Chapter 27 · The Flagship Graveyard

"Cut the chain or kill me now. Either way, stop staring." Lyra shoved Cassian's hand off her wrist and pressed both palms against the cracked navigation glass.

The ironclad lurched hard enough to throw Brant into the gun rack. Bolts screamed in the walls. Somewhere below them, a pressure valve burst with a sharp metallic bang.

Cassian caught the edge of the chart table before it took his knees out. "You want the chain cut?"

"I want the one holding us inside this graveyard cut. The other six can stay right where they are."

"That chain is wrapped around a royal dreadnought."

"I know what it is. I can feel it pulling."

"You can feel sunlight through three miles of black water, but you can't see the chain?"

Lyra turned toward his voice. Her silver eyes stayed fixed on nothing. Blood had already dried beneath her nose from the last resonance burst, but her chin was clean now. Cassian still remembered the gold that had run over it in the sanctum. He remembered her scream.