Chapter 19 · My brother died when I was sixteen

He dragged a hand through his hair. His fingers were shaking. I had never seen his fingers shake.

"My brother died when I was sixteen," he said, voice low and rough. "They told me the Crown executed him. That they burned the body. I saw the ash. I buried it."

Toby was quiet now, pressed against the wall, trying to be invisible.

"If he's down here," Cael said, "if they kept him..."

"Then we find him," I said.

"No." He looked at me, eyes dark. "We leave. Right now. We get the ledger and we go. You don't want to see what's down here, Mara."

"You don't get to decide what I want to see," I said. "That's my whole problem with you, remember? You decide, you pull, I follow because this thing in my arm says I have to."

"This isn't about the pact," he said.

"Then what is it about?"

He pushed off the bars and came at me. Fast. Not to grab me. He caged me with one arm against the cage next to us, his other hand flat on the iron beside my head. Close. Too close. I could feel his breath, his heat.