Chapter 15 · My Sister Saw Him

"You don't have clearance for this block." The Warden's pike came down across the corridor like a gate slamming shut, and Sona walked into it anyway, close enough that the crossbar pressed a line into her collarbone. "Move it, Dessa. I'm not asking twice."

"Choir law says a suspected traitor gets no visitors before judgment. You know that better than me." Dessa didn't lower the pike. Her knuckles were white on the shaft, and her eyes kept flicking to the stairwell behind her, like she expected someone worse to come down it any second.

"She's not a traitor. She's my sister." Sona's voice cracked on the word sister and she hated that it did, hated that Dessa heard it too and softened for exactly half a breath before catching herself.

"That's not up to me."

"Then get out of the way and it won't be up to you either."

Rhys caught up to her three steps later, boots skidding on wet stone, and grabbed her wrist before she could shove past the pike and put herself on the wrong side of a blade. "Sona. Think for one second."

"I've thought about it. I'm going in.