Chapter 26 · The pain will cross the bond

"The pain will cross the bond."

"I said I can do it."

"And I said no."

His voice hit her like a hand around her throat. Her body stiffened. Her fingers stopped above the hook.

Sylvia turned her face toward the empty air beside her.

"You don't command me."

Augustus frowned. "Who are you talking to?"

"The man who thinks he owns my hands."

Cassian's presence pressed against her cheek, close enough to make heat crawl over her skin.

"I own nothing of yours," he said inside her. "But I will not let you trade your life for a child you met thirty seconds ago."

"You'd trade his."

"I would kill ten men to reclaim the shard."

"Then kill ten men later."

"Sylvia—"

"No. Listen to him." She bent over Tomas. "He wants the shard more than he wants you alive. He'll let me use it. He'll let me burn. Then he'll call it strategy."

Cassian's silence sharpened.

Augustus gave a quiet laugh. "Your king sounds practical."

"He's worse than practical. He's a bastard."

"And yet you carry him in your blood."

Sylvia's head snapped up. "What did you say?"

Augustus's smile widened.

Cassian spoke at the same time.