Chapter 6 · Bound to the Man She Hates

"Tell me how to shut this thing off." Kael's fingers closed around the metal shackle at Sera's throat. "Now."

The pain stopped.

Not faded. Not eased. Stopped so fast her knees nearly folded.

Sera caught herself against the wall and stared at him. Kael stood close enough that his heat pressed through the torn fabric of her jacket. His thumb rested under the shackle, right over the thin black seam she had tried to cut open three times.

"Take your hand away," she said.

"The pain comes back."

"I said take it away."

His gray eyes stayed on hers. Cold. Sharp. Too calm for a man who had just pulled a condemned fighter out of an execution cage and dragged her into a locked service room beneath the city.

"You can hate me later," he said. "Right now, you answer. Who put the kill command in the shackle?"

Sera shoved his wrist.

Kael didn't move. The shackle stayed quiet beneath his hand.

"You expect me to believe you don't know?" she asked.

"I expect you to stop wasting the only advantage you have."

"You mean your hand."

"I mean me."

That answer hit harder than it should have.