Chapter 16 · Sparkbound - Chapter 16: The Door in the Bond

"Do not touch that door." Draven caught Wren by the back of her coat and hauled her away from the black metal seam cutting through the furnace wall.

Her boots scraped over the iron floor. His arm locked across her ribs, hard enough to stop her breath for half a second.

"Then stop dragging me toward it," she snapped.

"I am dragging you away. There is a difference."

"Not from where I am standing."

The furnace chamber shook again. Dust fell from the ceiling. Somewhere beyond the sealed gates, boots pounded closer. Hunters. A lot of them.

Draven shoved her behind a stack of cracked heat plates and crouched in front of her. His coat was torn at the shoulder. Dark veins crawled up his throat, disappearing beneath his collar. The rot had spread since they entered the old smelting district.

Wren grabbed his jaw and turned his face toward the furnace light.

"You are worse."

"I noticed."

"You are bleeding through your skin."

"Still noticed."

"And you are planning to fight them?"

His gray eyes dropped to her mouth for one sharp second before returning to her eyes.

"I am planning to keep you alive.