Chapter 24 · The Hollow Cure - Chapter 24: The Cost of a Heart

"Get your hands off my chest. I said no."

Lyra shoved him hard and Kael's back hit the stone slab. His scalpel clattered but he didn't let go of her wrist.

"You're not hearing me," he said. "You don't get a vote on this."

"Like hell I don't. It's my heart. My chest. You want to cut it open? Ask again and I'll break your nose."

"You think I'm asking?" Kael twisted, pinned her forearm to the slab, and leaned in. His breath hit her face. Hot. Fast. "Aldrus wasn't being poetic, Lyra. The key is in your heart. Literally. That crystal in your left ventricle? It's grown teeth. If I don't go in now, it shreds you from the inside in the next hour."

"Then let it," she spat. "You heard him. The cure costs a heart. You think I didn't do the math? You cut that thing out and I bleed out on this table. Or you use your blood to keep me alive and you die instead. Those are the options. No."

"You don't get to choose martyrdom for both of us.