Chapter 35 · Cut Me Open

"Put the scalpel down, Mira."

Silas had one hand around my wrist and the other braced beside my head. His fingers were warm through my glove. Too warm. His face was close enough that I felt each clipped breath against my cheek.

Behind him, three quarantine guards aimed crossbows at my chest.

I looked past Silas at the metal table. The scalpel sat there, bright and clean. The kind of clean that never lasted in the Bastion.

"You dragged me into a locked room," I said. "You put guards on the door. And now you're asking nicely?"

"I'm not asking."

"Then stop pretending this is a choice."

His grip tightened. Not enough to hurt. Enough to remind me that he could.

Silas Renn owned the Bastion, every gate in it, every ration card, every soldier with a loaded weapon. He also owned my contract. If I refused him, Nora and the children in Ward Seven lost their protection before midnight.

He knew it. I knew it. That was the whole damn game.

"You have six minutes," he said.

I glanced at the clock above the door. "For what?"

"To tell me whether I'm infected.