Chapter 45 · The Voice in the Case

“Don’t trade your life for mine.”

Dorian caught my wrist before I could step onto the platform.

His fingers locked around me—hot, hard, impossible to shake—while the armored train screamed against its brakes behind us.

I yanked once.

He didn’t let go.

“Your brother is behind that gate,” I said. “The court has a firing squad waiting. What exactly do you want me to do? Wave?”

“Stay behind me.”

“That isn’t a plan. That’s you pretending your body can stop bullets.”

His jaw tightened.

Blood slipped from the cut above his eyebrow and vanished beneath his collar. He’d let the guards beat him, cuff him, and drag him through half the train so the military would believe he was no longer in command.

The trick had worked too well.

Every rifle on the platform was aimed at him.

Dorian leaned closer. His breath brushed my cheek, warm against the cold metal door.

“Mara, listen to me. The man in that cell isn’t your brother.”

For one second, the guns disappeared.

Then I laughed.