Chapter 7 · The Price of One Day Free

The first warning bell struck before Lio could get her knees under her.

Its note rolled through Anchor Tower like a metal wave. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Somewhere below, boots thundered across the spiral stairs, too many and too disciplined to belong to frightened technicians.

“Reinforcements,” Cael said.

He was on one knee beside her, one hand pressed against his ribs. The skin beneath his fingers had gone gray around the burn marks. Black veins still webbed his throat, though the curse no longer crawled. Lio had forced Oro’s fire through him and somehow kept his heart beating. The effort had left her hollow. Every breath scraped. Her vision pulsed at the edges.

The black scale lay between them, warm as a living thing.

“Can you stand?” Cael asked.

“No.”

His mouth tightened. “That wasn’t the answer I wanted.”

“It’s the one you’re getting.”

He hooked an arm beneath her shoulders anyway. When he pulled, pain flashed white behind her eyes. Her boots slid over the copper floor, and she nearly folded against him.

Oro stirred inside her ribs.

The ancient presence no longer sounded like thunder. It sounded smaller now—