Chapter 39 · You look terrible

Then he lifted his head.

My lungs forgot what they were doing.

I had seen Cassian as smoke wrapped around my bones. I had seen him in flashes—eyes like black glass, teeth bared, a crown made from shadow and rage. I had felt the monster he kept between us and every hunter in the Empire.

This man was different.

He was still tall enough to make the soldiers look small. Still dangerous. His wrists were locked above him, his coat torn open at the shoulder, and silver lines ran across the fabric where the chains had burned through. Several dark fragments hovered near his back, held in place by thin wires.

But his face was not a monster's face.

It was pale. Tired. Angry.

Human enough to break something in me.

His eyes found mine.

The chamber vanished around them.

"You look terrible," I said.

His mouth moved. The sound reached me through the bond before it crossed the room.

"You look worse."

"I was dragged here."

"I was dragged here first."

"Then you should have escaped."

"I was waiting for you."

The words landed too softly.

My pulse stumbled. His answered from inside my chest.

Augustus moved between us.