Chapter 15 · The Map Under the Lock

"Don't touch the map." Calder's hand closed around Mara's wrist before her fingers reached the black iron case.

His grip was hot. Too hot. The bond between them snapped tight, and pain shot from his palm into her bones.

Mara jerked against him. "Take your hand off me."

"You break the lock, the whole room comes down."

"Then stop standing in my way."

"I'm standing in front of the only thing keeping my people alive. So, no."

The old archive chamber groaned around them. Cracks split the stone floor beneath the case. Red runes crawled along the walls, waking one by one. Calder kept Mara pinned between him and the iron box, his shoulder blocking the narrow path to the door.

He was close enough that she could feel every breath against her cheek. Dust clung to his dark coat. A thin line of blood ran from his temple, disappeared under his collar, and vanished beneath the mark burning at his throat.

His family seal.

The same seal that had opened the city gate.

Mara shoved at his chest. "You stole the living map from the Rune Court. You dragged me into a cursed archive.