Chapter 39 · The Physician's Mark

The ceiling came down and Torin put me under it.

Not gentle. Shoulder-first, drove me into wet marble, the east wall of the council chamber folding in behind us with a sound like a truck unloading gravel. Dust up my nose, into my teeth. My ears filled with one flat high ring.

I coughed. Something warm came up.

“Briar.” His mouth at my hair, his arm locked across my back, every muscle in him gone to stone. “Say something.”

“That's your elbow in my kidney.”

“Not what I asked.”

“I'm alive. Get off me.” I shoved at his chest. It didn't move. “Torin. Can't breathe with you on top of me.”

He rolled. Not far. He never went far now. Rain came sideways through the hole where the dome used to be, and past the dais the floor of the hall was ankle-deep and climbing, and the six silver flames were out — every one of them, cold as wet ash.

I put my hand low on my stomach before I could stop myself. His eyes followed it the way they always did now. Fast. Hungry. Full of a fear he thought he was hiding.

“You're bleeding.