Chapter 8 · The Second Chain

"Take your hand off me, Cain."

His fingers tightened around my wrist. The fresh mark under my skin burned like a live coal.

"You tried to cut the bond."

"I tried to stop you from crawling into my head. Big difference."

Cain shoved me against the black stone wall.

Not hard enough to hurt. Hard enough to remind me he could.

His body blocked the only exit from the ruined altar chamber. Heat rolled off him, completely wrong against the cold leaking through the floor.

His eyes were still that impossible monster-gold.

So were mine.

I’d seen them in the broken bronze plate beside the altar. I’d seen the same gold staring back when Cain’s pain ripped through my skull and dragged me under.

The bond had almost snapped.

Now the result sat behind my eyes like a loaded weapon.

Cain lowered his face until his breath brushed my cheek.

"Say it again," he said.

I swallowed. "Move."

His jaw flexed.

"That isn’t what I meant."

"Then ask a better question."

For half a second, his grip loosened.

I felt it through the bond. Control. Possession.