Chapter 61 · Tell me there is another exit

She looked at the hounds, then at the rooftops closing around the alley.

"Tell me there is another exit."

Cassian's breath brushed the edge of her thoughts. "There is one."

"Where?"

"Behind you."

She turned.

A figure stood at the mouth of the alley.

Master Veyr.

He should have been on the floor beneath the ruined operating room. He should have been too injured to stand. Instead, he held one hand over his side and kept the other wrapped around the gold-sealed vial.

His coat was torn. His face was gray. His eyes were still sharp.

"You always did run when the lesson became difficult," he said.

Sylvia backed toward the wall. "You are supposed to be dead."

"You missed."

"I never miss."

"You hesitated."

"I did not."

"You spared me."

"I spared the floor."

Veyr lifted the vial. "Come here, Sylvia. I can stop the second rhythm before it settles."

The words hit her harder than the chase.

Second rhythm.

Cassian's silence turned into a wall inside her mind.

Sylvia pressed her palm to her chest.

Thump.

Thump-thump.

Thump.

Two patterns. Two living pulses.