Chapter 52 · The Command Key

"Take the key, Mara. Before I lose my nerve."

Dorian held out his hand.

Not the hand that had signed arrest orders. Not the one that had dragged me into a thirty-day marriage contract in front of a military tribunal.

This hand was shaking.

A thin metal shard lay across his palm, slick with blood. He'd torn the command key from the port beneath his collarbone. The skin around it was raw and red. His uniform hung open to the sternum.

I stared at the key. Then at him.

"You just ripped out your command seal."

"I noticed."

"You need that to control the train."

"I needed it to keep the command that wanted you executed. That part's over."

Behind us, the armored train bucked hard enough to send a steel case crashing into the wall.

The judgment stop was less than twenty minutes away. Every mile brought us closer to more guns, more soldiers, and the official execution order waiting on the platform.

Dorian stepped closer and pressed the key into my fingers.

His blood warmed the metal.

"Unlock the case," he said. "Put everything on the broadcast."

"And leave you with no rank, no command, and no protection?"