Chapter 49 · Blood Altar Betrayal

“Don’t suture me.”

My mother caught my wrist before the blade came down.

Her grip was weak, but panic gave it teeth. Her fingers dug into my skin. Blood ran from the cut beneath her ribs and soaked the white cloth under her back.

I stared at her hand. “Let go.”

“Sylvia, listen to me.”

“No. You listen.” I shoved the blade against the stone beside her head. “You’re bleeding out, the hunters are outside, and Cassian has maybe five minutes before the seal collapses. I need to close this wound and place the shard before all of us die.”

Her eyes jumped to the black crystal on the altar.

“Not the shard,” she whispered.

Cassian’s voice scraped through my mind. “She knows what it is.”

“I know exactly what it is,” Mother said.

That stopped me.

The chamber shook. Dust dropped from the ceiling and peppered my shoulders. Somewhere beyond the iron doors, soldiers shouted. A fist slammed against the lock.

“Open the altar room!” a man yelled. “By order of the Empire!”

Mother’s hand tightened around mine. “If you put that thing inside me, they’ll use my body to reach him.