Chapter 19 · Pay For The Stitch

"Pick one, Cassian. Your power back or me breathing. You don't get both."

His hand slams around my wrist and pins it to the concrete. Claws out just enough to bite. Not enough to kill. Yet.

"Let go," I say. "You're cutting off the only circulation keeping us alive."

"You cut me open, Sylvia. You stitched a god into a girl's chest and now you want to lecture me on circulation?"

His voice isn't his. It's ours. It's vibrating through my teeth, my ribs, my throat. The abyss in him is awake and starving.

I try to yank my arm back. He doesn't move. Of course he doesn't.

The stitch between us is glowing. That ugly, beautiful black thread I sewed through his heart and mine. It's pulsing. Too fast. Too hot.

Blood is running down my forearm. Mine. Warm, slick, dripping off my elbow onto his knee where he's crouched over me.

"You're bleeding out," he says.

"No shit. Thanks for the update, Your Majesty."

"You did this. You pulled too much."

"I pulled just enough to keep you from tearing out of my chest like a bad horror movie. You're welcome."

He bares his teeth.