Chapter 11 · Raid

Levi's fingers didn't move off my collar.

"Say it," I told him. "Tell Sorin no."

He didn't. His jaw worked once, twice, and the silence stretched so long I could hear the map table creak under Sorin's weight where he leaned on it, waiting.

Then the alarm hit.

Not the drill horn. The other one, the short ugly bark that means the wire's been cut and something's already inside the fence.

Sorin's radio screamed static. "Perimeter's down. East gate. They're not knocking, sir, they're — "

The window behind the map table blew in.

I hit the floor on instinct, glass raining across the back of my jacket, and Levi's hand finally left my collar — not to let go, to grab. He hauled me sideways behind the table like I weighed nothing, and for one second his whole body was over mine, chest to chest, and I felt his heart going like a hammer against my sternum.

"Stay down," he said, right against my ear.

"Was that the envoy's answer?" I said. "Guess Hollen doesn't wait for RSVPs."

"Shut up and move."

We came up on the far side of the table together.